Space Oddity
by Storm0fCrows
Summary: "Captain's log of the Starship Seeker. Star date… two lines over coma…I think. Adrift for what feels like eternity through the eternal vacuum of space has taken a toll on both me and the crew. I believe my first mate Fawkes is planning a mutiny his only deterrent being that he needs my thumbs to pilot the ship. I continue my voyage to go where Padfoot has probably gone before."
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I own nothing. Requested by Panther-Strife

Chapter One: A Grievous Miscalculation. (Part 1)

Harry Potter found himself facing one of the most dangerous opponents he had ever faced for what felt like the millionth time. It caused many the wary man to succumb to rather dark thoughts that shouldn't be discussed in polite company; it caused the most dedicated of men to ponder their worth; and was, sadly the mother of innovation.

"Captain's log of the Starship Seeker. Star date… two lines over coma…" Like clock work Harry began his Kirk-esc recording of the ship's events. "I think." Harry shifted in his seat, trying and failing to make himself comfortable in the fake leather chair. "Adrift for what feels like eternity through the eternal vacuum of space has taken a toll on both me and the crew." Which was just him and Fawkes. "I believe my first mate Fawkes is planning a mutiny his only deterrent being that he needs my thumbs to pilot the ship… and open bags… and clean after him…" Harry trailed off wondering what Spock would do… "Things have become episodic in nature and tinkering with Hermione's bits has become my only true joy," Hermione being his trusty blaster, a gift from idiot who tried to extort him, Harry shot first. "as I continue my voyage to go where Padfoot has probably gone before."

Truly, there was no enemy as powerful as boredom.

Yet, who could truthfully blame Harry for succumbing to such a persistent foe? There were few fulfilling things one could do when lost in space… like watching old tv shows on a shielded computer and then acting them out when Fawkes wasn't looking or smash one's head against a wall, but mostly he would just stare out into the endless black of space and trace back the events that lead him to the cockpit of his very own spaceship.

It wasn't anyone's fault, honest, things just seemed to push him to this outcome. Not that he would regret stepping through the Veil, not if it gave him a chance at finding Sirius.

First, there was his break up with Ginny, nothing horrible happened, they were just going in two very different directions. Ginny wanted to be an international star and Harry just wanted a relatively calm life… things just sort of fell apart from there. Ron and Mrs. Weasley were particularly devastated when they'd heard the news, Ron had stopped speaking to him for a while… probably would have been longer if Hermione hadn't straightened him out

Secondly, Kingsley had moved him over to the Hall of Mysteries, where Harry had become an unofficial Unspeakable. The man wanted someone he could trust guarding some of the most brilliant minds in the wizarding world. Harry would be surprised if seven unbelievable things didn't happen each day after joining the mysterious group.

Which brought him to the third point.

The third event was what really sealed his fate, one of the swimming brains had escaped containment and found its way to the Veil. Harry had been half convinced the brain belonged to a Malfoy, with the way it managed to evade every wizard that tried to catch it. The Unspeakables had this piece parchment, like the Marauder's Map, that tracked the things but only if it were alive. After jumping into the Veil they were surprised to see it still bleeping on the map truly alive.

Months of testing and sending other live things in proved that there was life beyond the Veil. The news spread like wild fire and suddenly there were wizards from every nation visiting the Veil. A year later there were talks about sending a wizard in, but they were only talks.

By his twenty third birthday, Harry was offered the chance so brave death once more. His friends were devastated when they heard he had accepted. Ron had cried fro the better part of a week never leaving his best mates side and apologizing for every preserved insult he had ever offered his friend. Hermione had smashed her fist across his face and proceeded to lecture him about how irresponsible he was being… she had eventually brought him a back pack made from Horntail hide filled with consumables for his trip and a computer filled with information and shows she thought he might like. Ginny… well… she took it the hardest, she slapped him, then kissed him, then shagged him, then slapped him again, and then started crying… the sheer speed in which the things happened still had his head spinning. Luna and Neville had been the calmest of the bunch, particularly because Luna was convinced he would be fine and the chance that he would see a Crumple Horned Snorkack was even greater across the Veil.

Against his wishes there was a parade in his honor. Many prople cherred cheered Harry on as he went to make history. Half way through Fawkes had perched himself on Harry's shoulder and refused to leave. The Unspeakables had Harry dress in a green jacket made out of basilisk skin, they looked sort of like his quidditch robes if you asked him, and a rock he could use to communicate with them, and sent him on his merry way.

Harry couldn't particularly say how crossing the Veil felt since he couldn't really remember it. It was sort of like being put to sleep by Madam Pomfrey, one second he was in the death room the next he was on his ass just outside of an oddly shaped cave.

Harry's first encounter wasn't anything to boast about, a small alien woman with greenish yellow skin and a large pair of circular glasses, going by the name of Maz, had found him. She fed him and gave him a place to stay. He helped around the cantina, hoping to gain the lay of the land, so to speak. Apparently the galaxy was governed by the Republic, a republic at the brink of war with a group rallying behind a mysterious count from Serenno.

He heard about some wizard type sect called the Jedi that were apparently near the top of the Republic's spheres but not much was actually known about them

He spent a year there, learning how to fly, how to read (something that still gave him difficulty), and how to haggle. To everyone's surprise, Harry piloted freighters like he'd been doing it all his life. He had particularly fallen in love with a thirty year old YT-1300fp, which he wound up buying… against Maz's advice. Showing that he had wealth wasn't always the best idea when dealing with the people that frequented Maz's cantina. He should have been suspicious when they threw in the astromech and the badass helmet for free.

That was a little less than a year ago today… or had it been more? It was rather difficult telling time when there was no sun.

Harry had spent exactly two hundred seventy eight days adrift after entering hyperspace in hopes of going to Coruscant. The system had crashed half way and by the time harry had realized the mapping data had all been erased the stupid bucket of bolts had initialized another jump.

Harry ran his hands over his face and sighed. Two years explained in just a few minutes, two years and he was nowhere closer to finding Sirius than when he'd first stepped through the Veil.

The food had been stretched as far as it would go… if they didn't find a planet soon and one that could have edible food, and hopefully fuel, he would surely died. He doubted the bird would die, phoenixes were supposed to be eternal after all. Maybe that was why the Unspeakables allowed Fawkes to go with him? Eternity versus Death...

Clearly, they forgot that the brain had crossed with no trouble. If only the rock had worked… it was like the Horcrux hunt all over again, except on a galactic scale.

Harry rose from his chair with as much motivation as he could muster. The worn grey walls of _the Seeker's_ cockpit corridor had become a rather familiar sight but not as familiar as white walls of the circular main corridor that allowed him access to every part of the ship. As soon as he stepped into the rotunda Harry took a right. He walked past the boarding ladders and one of the three cabins on his ship and entered the engineering bay that Fawkes had claimed to be his room.

"Hey Fawkes." Said bird was perched happily on the green astromech's head, mindlessly nipping at his plumage. "I'm going to need the dustbin for a bit." Fawkes looked up at Harry a good minute before nodding his head. The red bird lifted off the droid and flew into the main corridor.

"Probably going to one of the other cargo holds." He told himself absent mindedly.

"Now," Harry said crouching down. "let us see if you'll cooperate." Switching the droid on the droid was a rather simple endeavor, pressing a small button near the base of its head.

As soon as the old bucket of bolt's lights started flickering on the blasted thing panicked. "BEEEEP, BEEEEP, BEEEEEEP, BEEEEP." Harry was unprepared for the droid's sudden movement and was easily over taken by its rush. "

Calm down." He said pushing R6-O5 off of him. The green droid disengaged from Harry and began zooming around the engineering bay.

"BEEEEP, BEEEEP, BEEEEP." R6 continued to screech.

" _Silencio._ " Harry watched as the droid eventually slowed down, finally noticing that its annoying little sound had been cut off. R6 stopped and looked at him expectantly. "Do I have your attention?" There was a flicker of light and a rotation in. "Good. I need you to dig into your memory banks at take us to the nearest habitable system." He paused after receiving no reaction. "Can you do it?" R6 flicked its lights from red to blue twice and spun its head once. Unsure what that meant, Harry took a step back and motioned it out of the engineering bay.

Once in the main corridor Harry decided that a threatening bluff would help motivate R6. "I should probably warn you, that if you jump us into dark space one more time, Fawkes is getting that bird feeder he's always wanted." Taking the threat at face value R6 doubled his speed. Harry couldn't stop a laugh from escaping as they ducked into the access corridor.

Much to Harry's Fawkes was sitting atop the control console. The old phoenix had avoided the room like dragon pox after the first failed hyperspace jump. "What are you doing here?"

Fawkes flew right at him and perched himself on his left shoulder. The bird trilled happily, rubbing his body against he side of Harry's face. The young wizard took that as a good omen.

' _Something that Sybil Trelawney clearly never heard of_.' Harry chuckled at his own joke, like he so often did, and readied to fly amongst the endless sea of stars.

R6 slid next to the wall and attached himself to the ship beeping madly as he did so. It took the droid a good twenty minutes to finish imputing the coordinates and by then the atmosphere of adventure had surely diminished, but then again time was meaningless when alone.

When the droid disconnected from the computer Harry sat down on the left chair flipped a few switches and jumped into Hyperspace. Harry found hyperspace to be rather hypnotic, the color and the sounds were truly a fantastic sight to behold.

Harry ran his free hand through his messy black hair and let a deep tranquilizing breath.

"I think we'll actually make it somewhere this time, Fawkes. " Harry murmured.

"Weeep-woop- weeuu." The droid bleeped. Harry's knowledge of droid speak was nonexistent. For all he knew the droid could be warning him of a malfunction in the hyperdrive. The present danger spurred Harry to leave the cockpit shoot a few _Reparos_ at the drive but was stopped when he heard a woman's voice come from the long-range coms device.

"So has your old Padawan, Nahdar Vebb." The rather pleasant sounding voice said, what caught his attention was the word Padawan. He had no idea what it meant but he was sure it referred to this Nahdar Vebb. "He's already on the surface."

A man's voice followed his voice a light with thinly veiled joy "It'll be great to see Nahdar again."

"I'll transmit the coordinates for the rendezvous point." A third voice joined in, much younger than the other two probably belonging to a girl in her teens. "And Master Fisto, sorry we lost that slimy double-dealer."

"Don't worry, Ahsoka, we'll catch Gunray yet." Harry pondered the relationship between the two. What type of Master was this Fisto? A master that teaches apprentices, like some wizards do, or as in literal master which implies servitude?

"Good hunting " With that the radio went dead and Harry found R6 looking at him expectantly.

"Get me those coordinates, R6." Harry stood from his seat, at least those coordinates could be trusted. "And reroute our course."

The sudden need to clean himself had come over Harry like ugly on Goyle. The fact that he had actually remembered that particular bastard's face made the urge doubly powerful. Fawkes jumped off Harry and promptly jumped onto R6's dome shaped head. "And don't crash the ship while I'm in the refresher."

o0o0o0o0o0o

It wasn't entirely what Harry was expecting, not that he was expecting much but a grey, mountainous moon was not exactly his definition of habitable. Apparently breathable atmosphere filled those parameters for R6. There was evidence of water that came in the form of fog. Initial scans of the planetoid revealed an encrypted tracking beacon and two small starships.

Harry suspected that the scanner wasn't exactly considered to be of the legal variety.

A quick fly around revealed a platform where he could comfortably land on less than a kilometer away from the two ships. He made sure to keep out of sight, just incase the inhabitants of the two ships had less than friendly disposition. The landing was less than ideal… he'd scratched the hull a few times, not that it was entirely his fault R6 was freaking out for some reason and a body binding curse wouldn't do anything against the bloody trash bin.

Harry paced around the ships main hallway searching for the helmet. It didn't look new, it had its share of ware, but it would protect his identity if push came to shove. It was mostly red with a few black lines with a t shaped visor. It also filtered out toxins or so he had been told. The fact that the man who sold at given him R6 did not inspire confidence but it would be nice to test it out. Harry ducked into the one of the passenger rooms on the port of the ship. It was an empty space that Harry had used as his room for the time, it's where he kept his computer, books, the gold in his bag, and that blasted rock the Unspeakables gave him.

Harry lifted the Elder Wand and called out "Accio helmet." The thing flew out from behind the books, nearly smashing into his face before it stopped and hovered. He put it on and grabbed a nearby broom.

R6 bumped into his leg forcefully. "Boop-weep-trililili."

"What?"

"Boop-weep-trililili."

"Droid, I have no idea what your saying."

"Boop-weep-trililili-wooop." R6 ran to the hatch and back looking right at him. The droid just stared at him.

It took him a minute to understand what R6 was trying to tell him. "You want to come with me?" Harry asked skeptically.

R6 beeped his affirmation.

"All right, just don't get stuck." Harry walked over to the hatch and readied himself for his first wiff of fresh air in almost a year. As the ramp opened up Harry felt a sudden chill run up his spine, a feeling similar to the time he had opened the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. With wand drawn, Harry slowly made his way down the ramp.

A quick glance revealed nothing but fog.

Once he was clear from under the _Seeker_ , he placed the broom under his legs and took off. Once high enough, Harry aimed his wand at the droid and lifted it up. He flew low and slow to avoid detection.

He stopped just behind the green triangular fighter.

"WOOOOOAAAAH!" The astromech on the fighter screeched instinctively, Harry instinctively glared at his own droid.

That proved to be a mistake, as two men in white and red armor scrambled up to where he was hiding and leveled their rifles at him. "Don't move, Mandy." One of them ordered.

"Keep your gun on him, Niner."

"I know what I'm doing, Bel"

Things were certainly not going according to plan.

o0o0o0o0o

A/N: Well that's the first chapter.

I wanted to do something different with Harry Potter x Star Wars. Where a Harry who knows nothing of the Galaxy or its customs searches for his godfather across the galaxy.

Yes, Harry has a Mandalorian helmet.

Yes, I know exactly what happens when people who haven't proven themselves use Mandy armor.

Any questions please feel free to review or PM me.

Happy trails,

until we meet again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: A Grievous Miscalculation (Part 2)

Harry had wasn't particularly proud of himself at the moment, with one rather tall soldier aiming a rather oversized rifle while the other frisked him for any concealed weapons.

"You're not a very good bounty hunter, you know that right?" The one named Bel joked as he pulled out Hermione from her holster. "I mean, what kind of Mandolorian bounty hunter gets busted by an astromech?"

"Not one that should be going after Jedi, that's for sure." Niner quipped.

Was it humiliating that an astromech had lead to his capture? Yes, yes it was. Did that said astromech was of the same make and model as his own, add to it? Absolutely. Was it mortifying that his own blighted droid was making nice with said droid? Let it be said that Dudley probably felt better in the snake exhibit than Harry did at that very moment.

Harry stood very still as the two identically sounding men joked at his expense. Part of him honestly didn't get the stigma of being a bounty hunter, they weren't necessarily bad people they were just doing their jobs. Of course there would always be a few bad apples in every group, like purebloods. Most purebloods don't particularly care what happens to muggleborns but then there are people like Malfoy and Parkinson that really push the envelope. Which gave the entire a bad name.

"Honestly," Harry said with his most placating voice. "This is all a misunderstanding, I'm not after your Jedi and I'm no bounty hunter."

"Smuggler then, bringing supplies to wanted Separatists is a crime." Bel sneered, clutching Harry's left wrists tightly. "He's clean." He proclaimed.

"Did you check his bag?" Bel looked stopped and stared at compatriot.

"You saw me check his bag, Niner."

"It can't hurt to double check, Bel."

"I know how to look for weapons."

"I'm just saying we're demo specialists not guards." Niner defended himself. "You could have missed something."

"How about next time, I point the gun and you search the prisoner."

"It's not about who does it, it's about doing it well."

"All this Moof-milker has in his bag is a rag and some food."

At least they didn't know what the Cloak of Invisibility was which was a rather large plus for Harry and the man hadn't bothered to check his sleeves. Hopefully R6 had gotten back to the ship and managed to convince Fawkes to come get him…

Who was he kidding? The useless, overweight glob of grease probably fell off a cliff trying to save its own shell.

"How can I explain this to you?" Harry asked as he was shoved against a nearby wall of rock. "I'm not a smuggler. I was just responding to a distress beacon in this area."

"What a coincidence," Niner said sarcastically. "we were responding to an encrypted beacon too. In fact why don't you tell us what type of scanner you've got in your ship?"

"No idea, I bought my ship second hand… maybe fourth hand, I didn't exactly get its history with the purchase. " Harry tried to reason, there was little doubt in his mind, now, that the man who sold him the ship was exactly the most honest of Weequay… named Hondo.

' _There's no way that's an actual name._ ' Harry thought to himself. ' _Now how do I get out of this?_ ' There were a few ways he could go about the whole thing, some violent others not so much, each made things interesting. As much as he would have loved going with the Mister Spock method of resolving problems, but he wasn't exactly sure how he was going to get Fawkes to fake his death without clawing his eyes out. The next best option, "The Captain Malcolm "method, as Harry liked to call it, was still very much open.

Bullshit, until the opportunity arose where he could quickly but surely whoop some Alliance ass. Not that the Republic was anything like the Alliance… Maz said they were okay… but if they were anything like the Alliance, disinformation would be the key for their longevity.

"I feel inclined to warn you that a team of highly specialized commandos are waiting for my signal."

"Right, and how exactly are you planning on delivering said signal?"

"Like this." With a deafening crack Harry apparated onto the green ship landing on the other R6 domed head. " _Stupefy!"_ Two red stunners shot out from the tip of the elder wand and smacked into each one of their chest. Harry expected, that with his luck, the armor would absorb the effect of the spell, thankfully his magic was strong enough to quickly take the two out.

Harry's victory was short lived when the droid that he'd been so happy to stand on decided that it I didn't like him and began to spin to spin its head. The sudden and unexpected shift in his gravity sent Harry tumbling off the green interceptor.

A quick dust off and a rather strong sticking charm got the bot out of his hair. With the droid taken care of Harry strutted over Bel's prone form and picked up Hermione. "Don't worry Mione nothings going to get you now." He whispered before gently placing the blaster in its holster.

Looting had become a habit during the war, with needing to replace wands every so often, one that Harry wasn't particularly keen on surrendering either. So when he felt no real guilt when he began stripping the pieces of armor away and placed them in his bag, who knew when it would come in handy.

With four thermal grenades Harry turned to the giant metal doors that were embedded into the mountain. "With doors that big, someone is definitely trying to compensate for something." Placing himself under his cloak should have crossed his mind earlier but the whole being a Gryffindor sort of got in the way of his more rational mind… who was he trying to kid, rational hadn't been part of his vocabulary for a very long time.

o0o0o0o0o

There wasn't much Harry could say about the mountain base, mostly because he could barley see three feet. It was dark, gloomy, and the air smelled stale. In the words of Doctor Zachary: "Evil knows evil." So did Harry, but that was mostly because of experience.

Harry moved slowly across the labyrinth like maze of corridors until he found a well lit circular room with a single chair and multiple diced up droids. The slices were still smoking so he doubted that the Jedi had been gone long and with there ust being one door which he hadn't explored Harry kept going deeper into what he was beginning to relies may be a temple of doom.

It didn't take Harry long to find the first evidence that his exploring was ill advised, the corridor was filled with rooms each one depicting a single warrior in various stances. In the first room there was the unaltered warrior holding the head of his prey high… like a trophy. The second room had two statues one with both arms replaced with cybernetics and the other had his face covered by some kind of plate. The final room at the end of the hall was filled with what Harry could only assume to be replacement parts.

Deciding to head back Harry noticed a door he had previously missed. Inside were three soldiers in the same type of armor and coloring as Bel and Niner, and what he assumed were the Jedi. One was tall, green with lots of tentacles sprouting from his head… sort making hi look like those singers on tv that Vernon used to curse about, Harry could feel the power seeping out of that one. The other one, was short, orange and reminded Harry of that Goldfish Dudley managed to kill in a span of a week.

"These must be trophies taken from the Jedi he's murdered." The goldfish cursed, maybe this was Nadahr or whatever his name was. "There are so many."

"Why would Dooku want to set a trap for his best General?" Fisto asked the group. "It doesn't make sense."

"Are we the bait, or is Grievous the bait?" Goldfish added. "We must consider who this trap is for."

General, your droid is tracking an incoming ship." His wrist radio crackled. "It matches a description of General Grievous' fighter and we've encountered and unknown." 

"Keep out of sight and stand by for further orders." Fisto ordered. "Tell me about the unknown." He said in a hushed tone. Harry really wished he could get closer to the general, with any luck they'd be too embarrassed to accurately give a description of him.

"Capturing Grievous could turn the tide of the war." The Goldfish was getting exited now. "And if he doesn't know we're here, we could take him down easy." There was a small part in Harry that just wanted to see the guy fail, because really if this guy killed every person that each trophy represented then his arrogance was going to cause the death of those under his command.

"Don't underestimate him." The green Jedi said turning his attention away from his communicator and onto the group. "We'll need a plan."

"General, if I could make a suggestion." The one with the extra piece of armor on his shoulder spoke up. "We can use the hooks on our rifles to keep him trapped while you and commander Nahdar capture Grievous."

"An excellent suggestion, Commander Fil." Fisto praised a wide grin spread on his lips. "Let us go prepare." It was impossible to tell where those completely black eyes were looking at, but Harry swore that despite the cloak he was being watched.

"Of course, master." The goldfish said with a slight bow.

Harry ducked into a nearby corner of the trophy room where he was certain none would pass. Goldfish was the first to leave, followed by the soldiers, and finally Fisto who lingered in the room for some reason, maybe he recognized someone's braid or cylinder, or maybe he could sense Harry hiding. It didn't really mater as Fisto left the room shortly before Harry felt necessary to pull out his wand.

Harry waited until he was sure they were far enough away that if he needed to run, he could run.

Taking off the cloak and neatly placing it in his bag Harry wondered what exactly had driven him into the building. He could blame it on curiosity, but in all honesty it felt more like an itch that he couldn't scratch until he walked into a death trap, so he blamed Dumbledore for instilling his need to be the bloody hero into him during his first year.

Harry quickly decided that if he wasn't going to get anything he might as well piss off the cybernetic murderer by stealing his things.

Harry settled on a simple silver cylinder with black grip. His thumb pressed a small button igniting into what Harry could only call a sword. It had a deep humming sound to it that was almost relaxing.

Harry twirled the Ravenclaw blue sword around in an effort to get accustomed to its odd weight. It was rather pretty, in the sense that it could very well kill the owner as to protect him. There was a hypnotic quality to the blade, like a flickering star in the distance. With a strong sweep, Harry smacked the sword into a nearby metal pillar. Harry pulled the blade back and struck the pillar with a bit more force, this time he cut straight through it.

"This is fantastic." He said smiling. Once he removed his thumb from the button the beam of bright blue light disappeared with a hiss. Once, Harry managed to safely latch the thing onto his pants, he was more than ready to leave. Just as he reached the door Harry got that all too familiar itch telling hi to stop and turn around.

And so Harry did, this time noticing a cylinder much different than the others. It was twice as long as the one attached to his hip. Upon closer inspection Harry noted another glaring difference, instead of one hole where the blade could come out of there were two one on each end.

But what fascinated Harry the most was the feeling that the metal cylinder had at his touch, felt as if it had its own beating heart. With his left hand harry gripped one end of the sword, while he ran his right hand over its uneven surface.

As if guided by some unseen specter Harry's fell into place perfectly aligning with its grip. Harry was most certainly not prepared for two beautiful dark carmine colored blades that erupted from the simple hilt.

In his fascination Harry failed to notice the small electric currents running up his arms and into his core.

Harry was instantly enamored with the object in his hands.

Harry twirled it like he would a warlock's staff. It felt better than the other sword, movement came much more naturally, and there was more fluidity than with the other one too. Harry had no idea how long he had spent just getting a feel for the blade when he decided to that he had dallied long enough.

Removing his fingers from their position shut it off with a dying hiss. Smiling, Harry stuffed it at the very top of his bag.

Once more he covered himself with t his cloak and continued his directionless search for supplies.

o0o0o0o0o

Eventually, and Harry meant eventually, he found himself in the hangar. He wanted to jump with Joy but kept to the shadows as he watched a four armed, cybernetic, monstrosity drive Fisto back onto what he assumed was a landing platform.

"I wield great power, Jedi fool." Grievous growled. Just as he struck out at the jedi Fisto dodged the attack and quickly cut the opponent's hand. The sword twirled in the air until it was quickly snatched by Fisto.

Fisto ignited the sword and stood defiantly in front of Grievous. "That power will only consume you." What followed next Harry could only describe as the greatest sword fight he'd ever witnessed. It was clear that Fisto was the superior warrior as he quickly forced Grievous on the defensive.

But the tide of battle quickly turned when three staff wielding machines joined the fray and the roles were flipped. "How quickly power can change hands." The cyborg taunted. "Surrender, and I promise you will die quickly." Fisto looked around him for a moment before turning off both his swords.

For a second Harry was convinced that this would be the end of the Jedi, that was until the green ship emerged from the fog, Fisto back flipped onto the ship and flew away. The anti-climax of it all was not lost to Harry but the best that he could do was to stay hidden until such a time when he had found Sirius. That didn't mean he couldn't do something.

He summoned eight fuel tanks and with silent _Reducio_ he placed them in in his bulging bag.

Harry was quick to mount his broom, but before he left he primed all four grenades and deposited them under the general's ship. Harry flew past the irate cyborg and his guards.

The bombs detonated moments later.

Harry wished he could say he was disappointed when he found R6 zooming around the _Seeker._ The droid didn't even have enough in his memory banks to lower the ramp let alone make it back to the ship, yet it always seems manages to defy Harry's expectations. "Fat lot of good you were." He said lowering the ramp.

"Booo-woop-trip." The droid seemed to agree, which was worrying enough. The droid quickly zoomed into the ship and took a left once he entered the main corridor. He was probably going to the cockpit Harry deduced and quickly made a run for it.

Harry had sprinted past the refresher when saw the galactic hologram in the recreational area of the ship, high lighted on it was al large world not too far away where there seemed to be a healthy amount of traffic.

"Dat-da-da!" R6 chimed. Clearly the droid had snuck into the Republic ship and copied their maps, which Harry had to admit was a much better idea than charging into a dark temple and mindlessly wander about. Harry conceded the point to the droid.

R6: 1 ; Harry 5.

Upon closer inspection Harry was able to read the name: Taris.

Populated planet; just far enough away from the central government so that some unnamed Marauder could operate without drawing attention, and according to the map high tourist activity which probably meant brothels which also had the unnamed Marauders name all over it.

Harry smiled. "Bravely going where Padfoots probably gone before." Harry muttered softly.

What could possibly go wrong?

o0o0o0o0o

A/N: And that brings us to the conclusion of this chapter.

Noting Harry's obsession with sci-fi tv shows,: Harry is pretty much living one so he might as well get some pointers from some the greats and Malcolm Reynolds is certainly one of them.

Who can guess what important character did Harry's red lightsaber belong to?

Please review and be sure to check out my other stories.

Next time: A Mandolorian, a Medic, and a Wizard walk into a Bar…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Quarantine (Part 1)

Clone Commander 5052, also known Bly, watched Jedi General Aayla Secura, glared at one of the nearby moon with such intensity that Bly hesitated to approach her. Bly had been through a lot with General Secura, so he knew that something serious must have occurred to put her in a mood.

The twi'lek Jedi had lead him and his bothers from planet to planet, taking them back from the sepis, she never even blinked, but she had one blind spot and that was Master Fisto.

As far as he could tell they were as close as Jedi could be… maybe pushing the boundaries a bit, but he didn't particularly care. As long as General Secura continued her more than admirable effort against the Separatists he was, to an extent, happy. He would have been much happier if the Council had allowed him and a team of his brothers to scour Grievous' base.

But good soldiers follow orders, no matter how much they disagreed with them.

Bly had been the second Commander assigned to General Secura after the Republics first monumental loss against the droid armies. It was also the graveyard of three masters and an entire fleet of ships filled with his brothers.

He would make Grievous pay. "General Secura, General Fisto is waiting for you, as is the rest of Council, ma'am"

"Thank you, Commander." Her voice was, as always, emotionless. "Prepare a team of ARC troopers and three squads of clones."

"Yes, ma'am."

o0o0o0o0o

It took _the Seeker_ a good hundred something hours to get to Taris and when Harry had finally arrived he'd spent another forty-eight hours waiting for permission to land. Harry admitted that the process would have been much faster if he had bothered to bribe the tower commander, but in all honesty he would rather wait the man out than give him money.

It wasn't like he had anywhere better to be.

So, when he wasn't broadcasting the _Ballad of Serenity_ , he studied Taris' geography. The planet was mostly one big city, with a few pockets of uninhabited swampland, that for some reason were being patrolled much more heavily than the commercial districts, but they also had the least population on all the planet, which fit a former inhabitant of Azkaban just fine.

He crossed referenced this with unexplained events, like an out of control vehicle suddenly stopping before crashing into a building, confused or disoriented individuals with no evidence of drugs or alcohol in their system, and/or impossible pranks.

Surprisingly, he found one district in the northern hemisphere that had all three.

"I need directions to Vao district." Harry asked the tower commander.

"It's being uploaded to your ship." Came the cool, collected, and professional voice of the tower. "May we never cross paths again, Mister Potter." With that, the channel was cut giving the young Wizard the impression that he wasn't wanted.

Harry laughed and turned to Fawkes. "He wasn't much of a conversationalist, was he, my feathered compatriot?"

The Phoenix gave Harry this piercing look that probably meant that he wasn't at all amused with him either. Considering the past few days and adding that his favorite perch was zooming the ships main corridor, Harry didn't particularly blame him for getting annoyed at his special brand of humor.

The bird nipped at his ear.

Harry recoiled slightly. "Easy Fawkes, no need to get uppity."

Fawkes hissed at him and flew away.

"What's wrong with him?"

Of course he didn't get an answer, Fawkes wasn't talking to him and R6 was useless, as it was most of the time.

From afar the city of Taris was a beautiful sight, the yellow sky added an exotic glow to the quickly shifting skyline. It reminded him of the time he'd flown on a thestral's back hoping to save Sirius, but this time he was sure it be different.

Harry leaned back and shifted the ship onto. "I'm coming, Padfoot…" He whispered to the empty cockpit.

o0o0o0o0o

Meanwhile on Coruscant…

Master Yoda sat in his chair in the Council room, to his left sat Master Mace Windu and to his right sat the hologram of Master Shaak Ti. In the center of the room stood the holograms of Knight Secura and Master Fisto. "Troubling, this is." There were few holocrons that spoke of anomalies in the Force, fewer still resided in the temple since the sacking of Coruscant and the Ruusan reformation. "A vacuum in the Force, you are certain?"

"Yes, Master Yoda," The Nautolan Jedi spoke up. "I felt it briefly while in Grievous' trophy room… it felt like death."

"Most troubling." Windu murmured. "Do you believe this could be the doing of Dooku's master, Master Fisto?"

'I felt no ill intent." Fisto answered crossing his arms. "and my troopers were left relatively unscathed."

"Relatively?" Master Ti inquired.

"Two of my troopers encountered what they described as a short male, humanoid, with a Mandolorian helmet, a DL-44 blaster and stunning device." Suddenly the two troopers stood aiming at the previously described man who put his hands in the air. "He stunned both of them…he also stole one of my troopers armor."

A small smile graced the Torgutan Jedi's lips. "How interesting."

Knight Secura stepped forward. "Could the Danthomirian Witches be responsible?"

"Why would they risk their neutrality? Asked Master Windu.. "Why not send one of their own to Grievous' lair?"

"Commander Bly has informed that traces of thermal detonation in the hangar."

"Consult Master Kenobi, we must." Yoda looked pointed at Fisto. "Return to the Tempe, you must. Investigate, Master Vos will."

Fisto bowed and faded.

"Knight Secura, we need you and your men are needed to protect the planet Quell." Master Windu informed Knight Secura.

"Certainly, Master." With that the connection was cut.

Shaak Ti watched Master Yoda for a second. "Are you sure involving him is a wise choice?"

"Trust in Force, we must." Shaak Ti looked disapproving of his answer but kept her silence, after a minute the connection was cut.

Yoda stood from his chair and began to leave the room. "Inform Master Vos of his mission, meditate I must.'

o0o0o0o0o

Calling the Vao district a shit-hole would be a compliment. Merlin's beard, did the place looked horrible, Harry actually considered putting on placing a sticking charm on his pockets just because how horrible the place made him feel, Knocturn alley didn't even come close with how utterly filthy the town was.

Harry was suddenly very thankful for his helmets air filters.

It was a dark and grey place that he was certain that if it weren't for Hermione's Point Me he would have certainly gotten lost. As it was he wasn't particularly sure where he was going, every few minutes the wand would shift direction entirely, forcing Harry to cut through dark alleyways and use his broom to cross empty spaces.

It didn't take Harry long to notice that the magical signature he was following was actually following a pattern, he knew the pattern well from his childhood. When his cousin and his friends were bored they would chase him all around the neighborhood for their little Harry Hunt.

It had been ineffective when he was a kid and knowing Sirius with all the trouble he got up to… there was no telling who could have been chasing him. So he ran faster than he'd ever run before.

He dashed through empty streets while keeping a keen eye at his twitching wand, to the casual observer (if there were any) he would certainly look like a mad man following a floating stick. Harry descended into the city until the sun became a distant memory.

But he didn't care, not when Sirius was so close.

Harry turned a sharp corner into a dark alley and that was when the wand stopped moving,

Harry stopped in his tracks, there were three men dressed in armor, with helmets that mirrored his own, and then there was a woman standing over a figure bundled in dirty rags.

Harry drew his blaster in one hand and snatched his wand in the other and prepared to release an onslaught of galactic proportions, but something beat him to it.

Monsters seemed to come out of the walls, grotesque eyeless apes with giant maws meant to devour people whole, and sickly pale skin. They roared and hissed drawing the group of would be hunters looked away and opened fire on the creature.

"Death Watch fears NOTHING!" One of the men shouted. With a name, Harry had no need to stay summoned Sirius to him and took off on his broom.

He kept his broom flying straight. "You're going to be alright!" he shouted at the unconscious figure pressed against him. Of course, that was when the universe decided that it needed to add its two pence. One of those creature jumped out from a wall and nearly knocked them over. It took a bite out of Sirius and nearly took bite out of Harry, before he had the chance to put Hermione to its chest and blast it off. But to his surprise, his left hand was not holding his trusty blaster, instead the red angry red light blade pierced the creatures heart sending it to the oblivion below.

Once more Harry felt as if someone was guiding him.

The warm blood that spilled onto Harry was enough incentive to stop but he kept on going until he was surrounded in sunlight.

Harry landed in the center of an empty street and began pulling off the dirty rags to get good look at his wounds.

That's when a few things were revealed to him. One the person he had rescued was not a middle age wizard, nor was he a he, nor was he human. It was as a girl with yellow fur, seventeen years old if he had to hazard a guess. She sort of looked like a humanoid lion with straight black hair.

There was just one thought running through Harry's head:

"You can't be serious."

o0o0o0o0o

A/N: Things are picking up, aren't they?

Props to those guessed correctly, the lightsaber belonged to Darth Zannah once upon a time. It's actually in the Legends section that Grievous owned that lightsaber.

To the guest that reviewed that I should change Harry's statement to open war, remember that Harry was lost in space for two years Episode II: Attack of the Clones hadn't yet occurred by the time of Harry's maiden voyage. Since the story is in a third person limited point of view Harry doesn't know what he doesn't know.

Sorry for the lack of R6 in this chapter, he wasn't really needed.

The girl is Cathar.

And yes, pun totally intended.

As always, please leave a review and or PM me with any questions.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Quarantine (Part II)

Ursa Wren watched the strange man who wore the helmet of House Dashen fly away with their target on a broom made from wood as rakghouls emerged like the demos they were from the decrepit walls of the ruined Undercity of Taris. Her amber eyes followed as they weaved around the falling beasts and widened when a red blade cut through one of them.

This was supposed to be a simple hunt for the initiates but had turned into wasteful tragedy. She had to put down one of the more promising initiates, a boy who knew nothing of honor whose name was not worthy of remembrance, and lost another the boy.

She knew it was pointless to waste her ammunition on the rakghouls and ordered a retreat.

"Tok'kad!" She ordered but was ignored by the initiates.

"We can win this!" One of them shouted while blasting away at the quickly growing horde. His name was named Canderous, like the former Mandalore, she had thought him too young, too proud, and too proud to go through the rite but he was vouched for by their leader. The second, Kira she had thought to be wiser but he too had lost himself to the battle.

They were ignoring the tenets that kept the Madalorians alive since their origins. They were disregarding an order given to them by their superior officer and worse were disregarding the laws of survival for the sake of glory. One of the rakghoul got passed the initiates and bit down on her wrist blater, damaging it beyond her experience to repair it.

With a single vibro-knife strike to the neck, Ursa killed the offending beast. Frustrated and angry she activated her jetpack, ignited the rockets and began to hover.

"Or'dinii!" She shouted at them. "You deserve your fates."

With those parting words she flew up and away from the battle that brought only death. Her prediction held true, they were soon swarmed.

Ursa did not believe that she would ever forget their screams.

o0o0o0o0o

"Merlin's beard…" Harry whispered as he looked at the angry red bite mark around where Harry assumed used to be a chunk of flesh. Harry could feel the wound oozing dark magic; if he had to compare it any other magic he'd come across…he'd have to compare it to the miasmic aura of darkness that seeped from Slytherin's locket. From his position over the girl Harry could smell the disease setting in but the magic in the girl was fighting it with everything she had.

"Tergeo." Harry cast the spell fully intent on helping the girl fight the disease. "Vulnera Sanentur," Gash healed slower than he'd seen when he'd last casted the spell and depending if it was the woman's magic, her biology, or the curse bacteria coming from the wound.

Now, he needed figure out how he'd go about taking her back to his ship and put her in the Seeker's infirmary…well, it wasn't exactly an infirmary by any standard, it was more of a room with a tank that filled up with some strange clear liquid that apparently helped with the healing process, according to Hondo. For all Harry knew it could be some type of space age torture device, but seeing that his options were limited it would

After a moment of hesitation, Harry lifted the bleeding form of the (for lack a better term) cat-girl and not-so-gently slung her over his shoulder. The unconscious girl hissed at her rough handling, to which the wizard responded with a soft "Sorry" and readjusted so that they could both fly more comfortably and wraps his cloak over them.

Flying through the skies of Taris felt almost liberating after spending so much time in the Seeker, it almost made him forget how foolish he felt for following the only magical signature thinking that by the grace of Merlin it would lead him to Sirius.

"Chances are he's shacked up someplace, with a bottle of wine and two humanoids." Harry tried to joke, hoping that he could lift his own spirits at least a tad but he found his own joke to be as uninspired as Jayne's insults to River. He can feel the disappointment creeping at the edges of his thoughts so he turned his thoughts to the girl's attackers.

He hadn't the slightest idea what Death Watch was but he had feeling that they were similar to Voldemort's Death Eaters, the fact that they both wore silver masks did nothing to abate his suspicion. The problem when dealing with groups like the Death Eaters arouse with not understanding their purpose, the Ministry had thought them to be blood purists and treated them as they would treat a gang not a cult; they didn't understand their motivations nor did they try to.

Now, because Harry needed to save the girl, he was possibly on another cult's shit list and he didn't know the first thing about them. The fact of the matter was that he knew very little about anything in this alien galaxy!

He could barely read for Merlin's sake!

It was undoubtedly frustrating for the wizard, so much so that he nearly flew into the highly populated merchant sector where he'd left his ship.

Harry sighed and landed just in front of an open droid shop. With a flick of the Elder wand he shrank the broom and stuffed the cloak safely placed them in his bag. He looked around for a minute, trying to regain his bearings. He looked around looking for something familiar Harry was about to continue towards his ship when a metallic hand wrapped itself around his forearm stopping him from advancing. Harry turned and looked at an oddly shaped droid with glowing red/yellow eyes with a slightly rusted chassis and standing on two legs that was attached to the hand that was impeding his movement.

"Excited:" The droid greeted joyfully. "Hello, potential Master! You seem like someone who seems apt in the art of liquidation, would you care to purchase me?"

"Excuse me?" Harry asked honestly confused.

"Clarification: I only meant that you look like a very skilled bounty hunter and that it would be in your best interest to purchase the clearly superior protocol droid."

Forgetting the wounded girl on his shoulder, Harry couldn't help inquire about the protocol droid. "What exactly does a protocol droid do?"

"Jubilant: Why, future master, what can't a protocol droid do? I am fluent in over six million languages, I am familiar with the anatomy over six hundred species, and I able to terminate hostile meatbags." The droid leaned in. "Whispered statement: The meatbag that owns me is ignorant of this fact. I will be much cheaper if she remains so."

Harry had been sold when the bot said he was fluent in six million languages. "Alright, I'll buy you."

"Excited: Thank you, you do not understand how boring this store has been."

Harry went into the store fully intent on purchasing the droid but the shopkeeper took one look at his helmet and gave him the droid for free. Harry returned to the droid with proof of purchase.

"Amazed: Most impressive, Master. If you could tell me the dock where your ship in I can guide you to it."

Harry was already liking this droid more than he'd ever liked R6. "Dock seven, the ship is under Seeker, SC-32"

"Statement: Please Master, call me HK-51."

o0o0o0o0o

Ursa arrived to Ailyn's grave.

Ailyn had been an honorable girl with a flamboyant personality that put even Death Watch's most stoic warriors at ease and her armor reflected that. It had a myriad of designs and colors that set her apart from the rest of the Watch, she would be missed.

She carefully removed her armor replacing each piece with one of her own.

"Ni ceta Ailyn." She begged for forgiveness as she donned her fallen comrade's armor. "I failed them all."

She would regain her honor before return to Death Watch and face her clan.

Her visor was bigger than the one she was used to and the colors were off putting but it was necessary. Her prey was wounded and it would take days before the dar'manda could stabilize her enough to get her prey off world.

The cathar and her guardian would never suspect her.

o0o0o0o0o

A/N: Hope you enjoyed.

Please feel free to review and/or PM with any thoughts.

Betad by HowlnMadHowie

Be sure to check out my other works, I published a new Dishonored story for any fans of that game.

Happy trails.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Quarantine (Part III)

Quinlan Vos crouched low as he and a team of ARC Troopers, whose armor was decaled in the pattern of Lothal wolves, approached the Separatist installation on Eadu. The mountainous geography and near constant storms made air assaults on the refinery a near impossibility. The droids had defenses set up all anti air batteries into the mountains; that proved far too thick for the scanners of the Venator-class destroyers currently engaged far above the planet's surface.

He'd been infiltrating a cabal of smugglers who'd been spotted mining Kyber crystals on Dantooine, transporting them the trading outpost in the Ring of Kafrene. He'd managed to track the shipments to this remote world in Outer Rim, spending weeks in the rain observing the facility, trying to discern its purpose. The installation was a refinery, of that there was no doubt in Quinlan's mind, and for some reason Dooku had deemed it necessary oversee the project personally with members of the Techno Union.

In hindsight, Quinlan should have disabled the Separatist's AA guns before calling in for reinforcements but the target seemed far too important to allow Dooku and his cohorts a chance to prepare and escape. As it was it would be impossible to sabotage every anti air defense before Master Plo arrived with much needed reinforcements. They'd been lucky; managing to land one LAAT Quinlan doubted that they could manage a second one.

Commander Wolffe stood close by watching his flank with his blaster riffle at the ready, the Jedi made his advance faster in response. Quinlan didn't trust the clones; their origins were shrouded in far too much mystery for him to feel comfortable with, and the fact that they were under the Senate's absolute control amplified his distaste for them.

They stopped atop the ridge that the refinery was built under. Quinlan peered over the edge and down at the landing platform. There were at least seven BX-series battle droids, three Destroyers, half a dozen super battle droids and two dozen battle droids guarding the landing platform.

He could, given time, sneak past them and find Dooku, but with five clones that was a very unlikely scenario.

"What are our options, Commander Wolffe?" Quinlan whispered.

"Not many, sir." The clone commander responded in the same hushed tone. "Me and the others can draw the main force away, while you sneak into the base but we won't be able to hold them off for long."

"Once inside, I'll deactivate their defenses, you'll get your backup." Quinlan assured the commander. "If we're lucky, we might actually have a chance to end this war, once and for all."

"I thought the Jedi didn't believe in luck." One of the troopers quipped just low enough.

Quinlan locked eyes with the ARC trooper's black visor but he refused to respond. The Jedi nodded his head at Commander Wolffe.

"Come on, lads." The clone commanded his pack. "Let's show these Clankers what we've got!"

The troopers did not cheer, instead they moved to the edge and began to unleashing a torrent of fire unto the unsuspecting droids with their WESTAR rifles.

o0o0o0o0o

Meanwhile on Taris, Harry was not having a much better time. The sickness had sunk deep into the wound, her skin was becoming pale, and the flesh had darkened because of the clotting blood. The young wizard was at wits end and the poor girl was without a doubt dying, or at least becoming something different.

Upon closer investigation, Harry noted the similarity between the effect that this wound was having on the girl and effects of the lycanthropy on wizards. This curse was much more aggressive than the Lycanthrope's, there was no apparent trigger besides the bite.

HK-51 loomed at the entrance, observing him as he fussed over the wounded girl. His rusted metal frame blocked the only exit to the cargo bay turned improvised infirmary.

"Statement: The Cathar meatbag will not survive without proper treatment, master." HK said in a bored monotone. "Suggestion: we terminate it, before it becomes a threat."

Harry pretended not have heard the droid's suggestion, instead deciding that it would be more prudent to gain more information on the "proper treatment". "What do we need?"

"Excited:" The droid cried out happily. "Any blaster will do, Master."

"No."

"Query: No?"

"No, what do I need to keep her alive?'

"Disappointed: Damn it, Master! Must you raise my hopes?"

Frustrated Harry was ready so snap when R6 bumped into HK, squealing like a droid possessed. "Answer the question."

"Analysis: Wound pattern registers as being caused by Rakghoul, suggested action; place affected individual into functioning Bacta tank to slow the rate of infection and proceed with treatment."

"Where can I purchase the treatment?"

"Booweep!" R6 interrupted.

"Translation: The beeping trash compactor wishes to be of use."

"HK-51," Harry hissed, rising to his full height. "The treatment."

"Statement; copying relevant information to beeping trash compactor." HK's eyes began to flash at the same time as the light on R6 began to rapidly shift from blue to red.

"Be-bwoop-bo-trii." Chimed the little droid excitedly.

"Transfer Complete." HK said dejectedly. "Resignation: It will take you to the nearest clinic."

"Keep her alive, HK." Harry ordered as he followed R6, leaving HK-51 alone, staring at the wounded figure laying in front of him, unsure what to do.

"Statement: As a meatbag would say: 'I have a bad feeling about this'."

o0o0o0o0o

The refinery was empty. No, battle droids, no Techno Union engineers, not even a damnable mouse was scurrying on the floor. Quinlan did not need to be Jedi to know that he was walking into what was undoubtedly a trap.

Quinlan walked through the hallways with his green lightsaber drawn yet he encountered no resistance as he made his way deeper into the Separatist installation. The refinery appeared to have been evacuated at some point between when he'd called for assistance and before the Master Plo's fleet arrived.

Soon Quinlan found himself staring at a pair of thick metal blast doors. Cutting through them would take him far too much time so instead he looked around the doors. Spotting an air vent the Jedi couldn't help but smirk.

Using the Force, Quinlan jumped into the structural weakness and began, what some would consider to be, a very long crawl.

"-victory over the clones and the young Jedi was expected." Quinlan heard Dooku's unmistakable voice coming from a gap in the ventilation, he sounded far too pleased for a man whose facility was under siege. "but to best a Jedi Maste? This is truly an accomplishment worthy of recognition."

Quinlan quickly slipped through the gap the gap in the shaft and silently landed across behind the Count of Serenno, Quinlan stood just out of the general's line of sight. Grievous stood hunched, his machine body scorched from some sort of blast, and his mask was cracked in multiple places.

"The Jedi Fisto escaped." The droid general said looking away from the Sith lord.

"So, there is room for improvement…" Dooku said in a tone that barely hid his annoyance. In flash of movement Quinlan found his green lightsaber intercepting Dooku's glowing red blade. "Didn't Tholme teach you not to listen into your betters' conversations?"

Quinlan just grunted pushing him back a step with a well timed shove. "Not when it came to Sith." Was his response.

Dooku's frown deepened as he regained his footing. "What a pity."

o0o0o0o0o

A/N: Here's a small holiday gift for all you readers.

Betad by HowlnMadHowie

Happy new Years… Incase I don't post anything come New Years. Please be sure to check out my other stories.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Quarantine (Part IV)

Betad and edited by HowlnMadHowie

o0o0o0o0o

On Eadu, Quinlan's day was going worse than he could have ever expected. Dooku was toying with him like a loth-cat did its food. The Jedi knew that he was firmly outmatched by the Sith. He regretfully admitted that he'd underestimated the old Count.

Their lightsabers met with a resounding smacking hiss. Quinlan, who had always relied on the Force and his natural instinct, was being pushed back by the older, more powerful, and experienced Dooku. The old man smirked as he gained the upperhand which spurred Quinlan to act.

With a forceful push, Qunlan managed to break free and gain just enough space for one last desperate move.

"I expected more from Tholme's apprentice." He said dismissively as he parried the strike lazily. Dooku then thrusted his free hand out sending the Kiffar flying towards the far wall.. "But then again, my apprentice dispatched him so easily it is a wonder you've managed to survive this long, Vos."

Quinlan was unprepared for the sudden Force push so he was far too disoriented to feel the bone shattering impact.

He felt a few of the bones in his left arm crack Bleeding and struggling to catch his breath Quinlan was helpless as the Dark Lord casually made his way toward his kneeling form. Each step echoed through the deathly quiet foundry like the stomping of a tentatrek slowly stalking up its prey.

"The Jedi have made you weak." Dooku said from what felt like a hundred miles away, but the growing heat told Quinlan that he was close to bring his lightsaber down once and end the battle. "All your potential wasted on an antiquated Order who is far too blind to be allowed its continued existence."

There was a moment of deafening silence and then all the Jedi could see was the red beam of a lightsaber hovering inches away from his face. Its soft hum brought him no comfort, nor did his impending death bring him serenity. Instead his mind was plagued by a fear that he had thought to have been erased during his time as a padawan learner.

Dooku chuckled as he felt the turbulent emotions stirring within the wounded Jedi. "But I could teach you, Vos." He said in a low voice. "I could teach to wield the Force in ways you couldn't imagine." Quinlan looked up at the former Jedi, his face was a façade of courage but it was ripped apart once the Count sent bolts of lightning through his body.

Quinlan screamed but somehow he could still hear Dooku's deep voice. "You could be more powerful than any Jedi. They have stunted your growth, they have weakened you with their compassion, they have stripped you of your passion." Then the pain suddenly stopped. "Join me and live, defy me and you shall beg for death before your Army reaches us."

The Jedi took a deep breath, and released it wad of spit that just fell short of reaching the Counts boots.

The Kiffar managed to meet Dooku scowling visage and smiled defiantly before muttering a weak. "Never."

"So be it."

Quinlan wirthed in pure agony.

o0o0o0o0o

Harry was certain that they were lost.

It was just a feeling that he had, like the time he'd gotten only once before…when R6 activated the hyperdrive causing Fawkes and himself to experience the realities of Lost in Space without a helpful robot that blared 'DANGER, HARRY POTTER! DANGER!' whenever Harry was doing something remotely stupid…which had been far more common than Harry had cared to admit.

The sun had fallen beyond the skyline, which made the collapsing city look far from welcoming. Like mice the people he hadn't seen throughout the day began to flood the streets. He saw all manner of sentient life and some he wasn't sure counted as such.

As they walked Harry couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing in attention; he had learned to trust his instincts above all else so with his right hand he twirled the Elder wand, while his left rested on Hermione's grip. Every few seconds he would slowly tilt his head to see if he could spot some sign of their stealthy pursuer, but there were far too many people to accurately spot something that would normally stick out.

But for now he was clear that the slightest flash of silver and blue would mean trouble. He'd never heard of Death Watch before; Maz hadn't mentioned them and he was sure none of the patrons had ever commented on them.

The wizard had followed the droid until they were in the center of a half-empty bazaar, ten kilometers away from the ship, that had a few species that Harry recognized from from his time working in Maz's den. Most merchants were either Duros, Twi'lek, or Rodian, which didn't particularly rest well with the linguistically challenged Wizard who was undoubtedly going to get robbed when they began their negotiations.

Harry understood Ryl well enough and even spoke a bit of it, it was a simple enough language when one was exposed to it frequently…and it helped that fifty percent of the species were very pleasing to look at. He couldn't make heads or tails of Durese, let alone Rodian. Of course, Harry wasn't stupid enough to assume that a great majority of the merchants present didn't speak or understand English or as it was more commonly referred to as 'Galactic basic', but they would probably lead with the language that they were more familiar with, for their own advantage.

The duo nearly navigated through the entirety of the bazaar before R6 finally stopped at the entrance of a poorly lit alleyway. There was a stench that reminded him of polyjuice potion Hermione brewed for them in second year.

Harry, who hadn't been paying attention, nearly fell over when the green astromech suddenly stopped. Harry quickly regained his footing and turned to glare at the clearly faulty droid.

"What's wrong now?" Harry asked, his tone reflecting his agitation.

"Woop-woop-drii." It chirped merely moving in a small circle and, without warning, R6 veered into the alley at full speed. Harry didn't hesitate to follow the green astromech, he ended up dodging all kinds of debris, ranging from small chunks of garbage to large puddles of feces that left Harry wondering if here were giants on Taris. Oh, how he wished his helmet had filters.

Before he knew it Harry was standing in the center of a small oval clearing that split into four new dimly lit alleyways. There he stood, still, wondering which direction would take him where to the clinic and which would potentially take him farther away from his objective. Harry took a step towards the alley on his left but he stopped when he felt a familiar chill flow through him and the air became stale.

Harry pointed the Elder Wand at the far shadows. After a few minutes of standing ready for anything and nothing happened, Harry took a step back and tried again. Like his previous attempt he was met with freezing cold that one felt when a ghost passed through a living being's body.

"Hello?" He asked but, like most rational people expected, he received no answer.

Troubled with the new development Harry used his free hand to open his satchel and began to rummage through the bag in search of the Resurrection Stone. The problem with keeping small pebble shaped objects on one's person was that they tended to move around unpredictably, be it in a pocket or in an ever expanding satchel.

Harry was tempted to just summon the stone but it would be an idiotic move to point the only magical weapon he had away from a potentially spectral enemy. He eventually gave up, withdrew his hand from the bag, and attempted to go through another alley.

Just like before, the wizard was met by a sudden and unpleasant drop in temperature. This time, Harry pointed his wand quickly at the brown satchel and whispered a quick Accio. The small rock flew into is open left palm and once the smooth surface touched Harry's skin the apparition revealed itself.

Standing not two feet away from him was a blonde haired woman, who was half an inch shorter than him, and dressed in black robes. Her face was a blank mask, but her fiery yellow eyes that were surrounded by black diamond shaped markings betrayed her annoyance. She was a specter unlike any he'd ever seen…she seemed more solid than the ghost usually summoned by the stone but at the same time she felt absent, as if part of her was still trapped in the beyond.

Harry stared at her and she continued to glare at him. She lifted her left hand and slowly moved it so that it hovered right above his heart. There was an awkward pause as he tried to gage what the ghost was going to do. Surprisingly enough, he wasn't well versed with ghosts, just that they could a horrible handful like Peeves or solitary specters like the Grey Lady.

The silence was broken as faint cackle of static erupted from his left ear. "Excited Statement: Good news, Master, I have made an fascinating discovery. The cathar meatbag has an interesting brand seared at the base of her skull." HK joyful voice rang inside his helmet. "My databases have managed a partial translation. This is wonderful news, Master. It claims she is property of the inferior Mandalorians!"

Without taking his eyes off the ghost, Harry holstered the wand and brought his hand to the side of his helmet and pressed the small round bottom at the side of the helmet that he knew would allow him to speak through the Seeker's com system. "How is that good news?"

"Obvious Conclusion:" The droid responded with a hint of snark. "I get to liquefy them, Master."

Harry sighed and took a step back before cutting of communications. "This is going to be a long day."

o0o0o0o0o

Neither Harry nor the specter had moved since the moment of their encounter. The wizard stubbornly refused to give her his back and she simply kept her hand hovering just above his chest.

He knew well what Spock would do; he would attempt to negotiate with the being and if that failed find away around it. But Harry wasn't sure where to start with a ghost, they could want for nothing or want for everything, its age could was also a factor in which he knew nothing about and there may be a language barrier that could halt any potential progress.

But as luck would have, it he didn't have to deal with her for much longer as R6 barreled into him from behind, knocking the small, polished stone from his hand. While falling, he snatched it before it could touch the wet ground, he on the other hand had fell face first into a pile of piss.

Harry quickly looked up and found that the ghost had disappeared. Harry then stood up as quickly as he could, wiping off the feces and grime with on hastily cast 'Scourgify'. His attention slowly drifted onto the moving trash bin. For some unknown reason R6 was zooming around him chirping in a way Harry could only described as happily.

"Where have you been?" Harry asked once his limited patience slowly ran out.

"Bo-woop-woo." It responded with the same amount of cheer. A small compartment in R6's body opened up, allowing a small metal claw to come out. The claw latched itself onto Harry's pants and R6 began to tug insistently. Seeing as he wouldn't be able to draw a proper answer from the droid, Harry silently followed him, though internally he was swearing that he'd get a new astromech on the next planet he visited.

They traveled through the alley at a brisk pace. R6 proved adept at evading small obstacles and in turn helped Harry navigate through the maze smoothly.

They eventually found themselves in front of a dilapidated door. It was rusted and a covered in blaster marks, so much so that he doubted it could be moved without bringing the entire structure down, yet as soon as R6 approached the door slowly slid open with a screech so loud that Harry couldn't help but cringe,

Once again Harry felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up in attention, so in response he quickly ducked into the building. Once inside Harry could see evidence of some kind of battle. Bodies and scorch marks were scattered along the circular corridor.

Harry held up his wand and cast a silent a Lumos in an effort to illuminate the area around him.

"Wooh" He heard R6 mutter sadly. The wizard didn't need to understand the droid to understand the sentiment, most of the bodies were being dressed in plain clothes and clearly unarmed, some were even children…

Harry grimaced as images of the Battle of Hogwarts filtered in.

"What happened here?" He asked no one.

"Black Sun." A hollow voice answered from behind him.

Harry ducked and turned on his heel pointing his wand in the direction the voice. Harry was met by a taller human man, who had messy black hair, tanned skin and hollow brown eyes. The man looked older than he probably was, not that Harry could particularly blame him considering the slaughter around them.

The man looked over him before limping past him, gesturing him to follow with a bloody right hand. "The bastards claimed I was somehow responsible for some missing medical shipments. They murdered everyone in my clinic to make an example."

"Bloody hell."

"Hell's right." The man said, shaking his head. "But never mind that, you need something?"

Harry gestured to R6, who projected a hologram with the chemical composition of what Harry assumed was what they needed. The man crouched down and studied the hologram closely for full minute, before speaking.

"You got bit?" He asked Harry.

"No." He responded quickly. "But a I rescued someone who was, she's being treated on my ship."

The man nodded grimly and locked eyes with him. "I'll get my kit and you can take me to her."

An eyebrow rose beneath his mask. "I was under the assumption that I could purchase the serum and be on my way."

The man scoffed. "If improperly applied the serum could kill, which would be much more preferable than dealing with a rakgoul." He paused, stopping at the entrance of a completely wrecked office. "So, no. I cannot just give the serum."

Once inside the office, the man walked over to a blood covered portrait and pulled it off the wall, revealing a grey safe. He quickly punched in a series of symbols and the safe flew open. Inside the safe was a large red bag, which he quickly withdrew and slung it over his shoulder. "Let's go.'

Harry held out his left hand as if he were intent on introducing himself. "Before we go, my name is Harry Potter." The man looked at the offered hand wearily but eventually he took it.

"The name's Theron."

Harry smiled beneath his helmet and tightened his grip his other hand rested on R6's head "Don't let go." With that as his warning only warning, Harry apparated them away.

o0o0o0o0o

Commander Wolffe and his brothers stood over the ruined bodies of the droids proudly as the LAAT carrying General Koon landed on the nearly vacant platform. Two of his men were wounded but at least none were dead. Comet had taken a bolt to the leg while tangling with a Commando and Sinker was hit by clanker who'd been unlucky enough to be just outside the explosions kill zone.

The large gunship's blast doors opened revealing General Koon and three more troopers, who's armor was so clean he could see himself off of it.

"Koh ta yah, Commander."

"Sir!" He said snapping into attention. "We've received no word from Master Vos since he entered the facility."

Plo crossed an arm over his abdomen while the other adjusted the his breathing device. "This is very troubling, news." He turned to the three troopers behind him. "Rain, Rusher, Bolt secure the platform and escort the wounded to the ship. Commander, you and the rest of your men are with me."

"Yes, sir." His men were ready and waiting for the order. "You heard the General, move it!"

They entered the facility in pairs with the General taking the lead.

It was a maze but somehow Plo knew where he was going, it wasn't long before they found Vos and it was an ugly sight.

Electricity was flowing from Dooku's hands into the screaming Jedi. Vos' skin was red and blistering.

Without hesitation, Wolffe began to unload his blaster just as the General began his charge. Immediately, the Separatist leader stopped his attack on the downed Kiffar and focused on blocking the new series of attacks.

"Retrieve Vos!" Plo ordered his men. "We'll cover you."

"Yes, sir!" They chorused back.

Violet met red as the two titans crossed lightsabers. They battled in a flurry of motion that Wolffe could barely manage to keep track of what was happening let alone get a clear shot. It soon became clear that he would be more of a hindrance than a help so he decided that it would be best if he aided his men in Vos' rescue.

"The rumors of your skill with a lightsaber were not exaggerated." Wollfe heard the Count remark as they disengaged.

"You will pay for your crimes, Dooku." The General retorted. "I shall make sure about that."

"We shall see."

Wolffe grabbed one of the Jedi's arms and helped Heavy drag the fallen Jedi up. Vos grunted but was otherwise unmoving. "Radio the gunship." Wolfe ordered. "We need medical."

o0o0o0o0o

A/N: Two thirds of the future Shadow Collective have been introduced. Sorry for this late update but I've been rather busy with classes this tri.

I've published an Alien/Mass Effect cross over under the name Galatea but I'm looking for a title to replace it. PM with your suggestions.

Warm Shadows is currently being cleaned up, the first two chapters have already been but it's a work in progress. This is thanks to the efforts of HowlnMadHowie

Oh, and i'm looking for a Beta for my Avatar the last Airbender Story and Dishonored. PM if you want the job.

As always or review with any questions.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: Quarantine (Part V)

o0o0o0o0o

Harry Potter had spent the last week catering to a man who was far too angsty for his taste, a homicidal robot who would be happy to see said man liquefied, a droid with too much time on its hands or pincers, and a comatose teenage catgirl; and was starting to get on his nerves. It wasn't their company he minded exactly… it was more that, barring the girl, everyone seemed to get in his way in one form or another. The doctor always needed more supplies which meant that harry had to trade more and more gold into credits, which also drew the attention of some shady characters; HK usual attempts to "subtly" kill Theron always ended with Fawkes having to regenerate, which had the Phoenix on Harry's case.

Which, understandably, drove Harry from his own ship and into a far off, dingy, filthy cantina situated between two towering massive buildings and an lift that seemed to lead directly to the under city. Now, it would be a sad thing if Harry had been sipping his glowing blue drink alone, he had noticed an unwelcome tag along in the shape of a lithe, woman in mustard yellow armor, and that all too familiar helmet with the T shaped visor.

As he reached the end of his glass Harry wondered what exactly had caught this woman's attention… he wasn't wearing his own distinctive helmet, nor his bomber, and Hermione was being cleaned by HK, so what exactly brought this possibly problematic warrior? Was it his whine colored shirt? It wasn't pretty, but certainly not insulting enough that she would be openly hostile towards it.

"Or maybe it's the cylindrical tube hanging from your belt." He muttered into his glass. Harry was convinced that the blasted thing was cursed or at least possessed, so he didn't particularly fancy leaving it laying around the _Seeker_ for anyone to pick up.

Harry didn't consider it to be a Horcrux, at least not in the traditional sense, it didn't feel anything like Voldemort's or any he'd encountered in his time with the Department of Mysteries. This thing felt benign, as if it weren't trying to exert its influence onto him instead it felt like it was guiding him. Of course, Harry wasn't stupid enough to trust the damn thing, the slightest indication that it would try to wrestle control from him he'd space it.

But the current problem the wizard was facing finding out what he was going to do with his yellow clad friend. Obliviating was an option but that was more of a last resort, memory charms weren't his specialty and the risk of a total mind wipe was always present. Stunning her in the cantina was out of the question, maybe if she attacked him outside he could stun her and leave her someplace he was sure she wouldn't be trouble.

She was taunting him, standing at just at the corner of his vision. She knew that he knew she was there and that if she moved just a bit to her right she'd be in his blind spot. Maybe it was some kind of warrior code that kept her in line, and for that he was thankful.

He was knew exactly what they would do once the saw him preform magic, they'd assume he was a Jedi and proceed to try to sell him to whichever one of the two sides was with the Jedi.

' _Note: Ask Theron about the faction war_.' He wasn't sure why they were fighting but he did see the effects Taris, Hundreds of ships were in orbit, carrying Merlin knew how many refugees those old clunkers were ferrying. From what he'd heard the Republic was offering aid for the affected and it the CIS that was driving people from their homes… whatever the case he wasn't going to get involved unless he absolutely had too.

One war was enough and he needed to focus on finding Sirius.

But right now, all he had to worry about was just how quickly the blue drink was quickly disappearing. He was there to relax and as he intended to do just that.

It was then as he reached the end of his glass that a woman half a head taller than Harry, with sandy brown hair, and tan skin. She wore rusted red armor that was covered in dents and scorch marks, she had a heavy black rifle strapped to her back. She signaled the four armed barkeep with two fingers, he responded by bobbing its head once and bringing a bottle brown bottle and two small shot glasses.

The Barkeep then proceeded to pour the whitish liquid into both before leaving. The woman then slid the drink towards Harry and looked at him with the cold eyes of a killer. "You're the owner of the YT freighter." She stated in a manner that Harry was sure she wasn't posing a question.

"I am." Harry affirmed looking away from the mustard armored huntress and to the older woman sitting beside him. "What's it to you?"

"Nothing really." She said downing her drink. "Not yet, at least, but I'm hoping that will change."

Harry eyed the white drink for a moment before shifting in his seat, so he was facing her. "And how exactly are we going to change that?"

"I'm going to tell you a few things about what is a occurring within your ship and then I'm going to make you an offer." With that she poured herself another shot but otherwise left it there. "Your ship is YT 1300 light freighter. You purchased it in Takodana from a pirate who took it from an over eager bounty hunter. You have an unregistered avian creature, whom would fetch a hefty price on black market. You have an illegal assassin droid posing as standard protocol droid; a back alley clinic physician, whose being targeted by Black Sun playing doctor to a nameless Cathar cub that was sold to Death Watch by Black Sun. The Cathar is recovering from both malnutrition and a rakghoul bite. You have been conducting searches throughout the planet, for events that can't quite be explained, you're looking for someone."

"Bloody hell." Harry hissed, his right hand instinctively flicked, drawing his wand but by then she had a blaster pressed to his chest.

"There's no need for weapons, but understand that I will gladly blast you if I need to. Now, place the… stick on the counter and let me finish." Harry hesitated but did as he was ordered. "My name is Vohnte Tervo, and I want to offer you my services as a body guard."

"Why?" Harry asked keeping his hand visible and in a none threatening manner.

"I could go with the obvious answer or with the more complex one." She said taking another shot. "But neither of us has the time to play so I'll go with the obvious: you will be paying and you have a decent ship."

Now, Harry wasn't one to trust foolheartedly in anyone but something inside made him was inclined to agree to the woman's vague offer. She knew things about his ship and the people aboard it, it couldn't hurt keeping some one like that close. He didn't particularly have anything to loose at this point and besides an extra gun was never out of place.

After thinking it over for am minute, Harry decided that would be in his best interest to agree, so slowly he let his left hand fall onto the counter, wrap around the white beverage and lift it up.

"Cheers then." He said and the woman smirked, lifting the small glass.

In the back of Harry's head, he could hear the simple yet resonating voice of Mister Spock as he invited a woman into his fold.

' _insufficient facts always invite Danger._

o0o0o0o0o

Ursa Wren hated her luck, she hated retreating even more. There was nothing dishonorable with waiting for the opportune time to engage the enemy but it still felt like she was leaving matters unfinished and that clashed with her personal code.

She'd finally found a lead on the Cathar the initiates had been hunting and in walks one of the last people in the Galaxy she ever wanted to encounter. She could have taken him easily after the level of alcohol he'd ingested, even Jedi such has he would be slowed by it, but the woman in the worn armor was something else entirely.

She had been ten years old when Death Watch drove the _True_ Madalorians away from Concordia and then broke them by using the Jedi. There were exactly eleven members still alive after Jango Fett's death on Geonosis and that woman was one of them. Ursa remembered her Buir warning her of the dangerous woman from Clan Tervo who had killed her father and broke Tor Vizla's deffence allowing Jango Fett to kill their leader.

Vohnte was rumored to be one of the trainers for the Republic's Grand army, job perfect for a sellout like her, so she couldn't see the reason for her sudden appearance on Taris. Did she really despise Death Watch so much that she would hunt them to such a distant planet?

Whatever the reason, Ursa knew she was unprepared to deal with this new threat alone, she needed reinforcements if she ever wished to regain her honor.

o0o0o0o0o

A/N: So, here's chapter seven. Sadly short, delayed and sort of feels like filler chapter, but sadly its not. I wanted to put more but the sadly nothing else came to me fore this chapter. I am once more without a beta, so please be gentle haven't had much time to work on this story.

On that note anyone wanting the Job please PM me.

For those wondering where Ursa came from: SPOILER FOR REBLES (read at your own peril)

She was originally named Callista in this story but as soon Ursa;s name was revealed in Rebles i went back and changed it. That's right, this is Sabine Wren's Mother!

Okay, once more sorry for the short chapter. Be sure to check out my other works, Especially my new fic Once Upon a Time in Gotham for any fans of DC/Vertigo.

Happy trails.


	8. Chapter 8

**Betad by Lydia-Hood**

Chapter Eight: In the Blink of an Eye.

"Captain's log of the starship Seeker." Harry spoke into the console as he had done for the past two years. It was therapeutic when he had spent so much time alone amongst the stars. "The number of crew members under my care has grown exponentially since if arriving on Taris, but it the newest member of our rag tag bunch of misfits that has caught my attention. Unlike the rest she sought me out, put a gun to my chest and 'convinced' me that it would be within my best interest to employ her… I am uncertain about many things but her presence here has smoothed things over with the crew." That was a lie, but if by some miracle these recordings reached the ears of Hermione, the flesh and bone one… not his trusty gun, he didn't want to worry her.

Harry stopped for a beat to look at the eternally grey Tarisian sky and wonder if it was any better than being lost in the black, emptiness of space. The answer became obvious when a loud crashing sound suddenly erupted from somewhere on the ship, which was quickly followed by Theron's multi-lingual cursing and Vhonte's strictly Mandalorian brand of insults.

"At least my people aren't traitors to their culture!"

"Yet my people haven't thrown away their reason for fear, di'kut!"

This was just another rehash of an old argument between the two veterans. Theron disliked Vonhte because of how he views her people, which was pretty much like any warrior culture Harry had read about in the Department of Mysteries, and Vhonte was a proud woman who couldn't let things go. Theron was from a planet known as Jabiin, which is located somewhere in the Outer Rim territories and their current leader, a man Harry couldn't bother himself enough to remember the name, was attempting to brake ties with the Republic via the assassination of the ruling council. He used their desperation and paranoia to turn the military against the Loyalists in a bid for independence.

He was beginning to miss the peace and quiet. With a sigh Harry switched off the recording device and decided to make his way to the makeshift medical bay hoping to see some level of progress. He slowly made his way there ducking to the right to avoid any involvement in the rather loud argument between the medic and Harry's so called bodyguard. As he walked he was considering his plan to find Sirius, which at that point was nonexistent.

His original plan had failed him spectacularly, it would take him weeks of combing though information to find anything like what he had found in Taris and even the chances were he'd just make enemies with another faction… one seemingly more intent on killing him than the so called Death Watch, who hadn't made an attempt on his life, yet. It was clear that he needed to head to Takodana, to at least let Maz know he was still alive… maybe even get a tip from the seemingly all knowing woman.

Harry knew Sirius was out there somewhere, he could feel it, but the galaxy was a big place and that feeling was fleeting at best.  
He barely noticed when he arrived at his destination, but he did notice a rather empty bed that was used to house a comatose Cathar. It was then that Harry felt a disgusting cold feeling creeping up his spine, forcing him to take a few steps forward just as a clawed hand swiped at his head.

Instinctively, the wizard lift his left arm which was meant to draw his attacker's attention away from his right hand which was busy drawing his wand. The attacker, instead of taking the bait, thrust her hand out suddenly sending an invisible wave of magic at Harry, effectively sending him and the metal slab which had served as a recovery table across the small room and it the wall.

The force of the impact knocked the wind out of him but he was quick to retaliate with his own barrage of magic. Three angry red stunners flew from the tip of his wand with a loud hiss but only found its mark hitting his assailant on her right thigh. She froze in place as her muscles tightened painfully giving the wizard just enough time to cast Petrificus Totalus without the risk of it immobilizing either one of two sentient crew members who had finally quit their argument and were currently running towards them.

Harry moved over his downed opponent quickly, keeping his wand aimed at her at all times just in case her magic gave her some form of leeway. Unsurprisingly, HK-51 was the first figure to appear, its rusted metal hand gripping its blaster rifle evenly as it quickly trained its sight on the downed Cathar. Vhonte came in half second after him, her red long red hair was loose except for the odd braid, her green eyes were cold as if she had entered a state of complete focus as she drew two sleek, silver revolver like blaster pistols and levied them at the girl. Theron was the only one who wasn't armed, but he was a medic so Harry couldn't really fault him for sticking to whatever code back alley doctors followed.

"What happened?" Theron demanded. He looked flushed and winded as if not used to short sprints, or he could be angry… Harry couldn't tell.

"Get me a chair." Harry ordered as another shiver ran up his spine. This time he ignored it in favor of lifting the frozen girl into the air with a silent Leviosa. Harry could feel the girls magic thrashing against the stasis field he created, very much like a wild animal slashing at a cage. "Morgana's blood! She's actually resisting this." He muttered the last part.

Harry turned around to see Vhonte and Theron looking at him with varying degrees of curiosity. The Mandalorian was probably trying to figure out what he meant by Morgana's blood, and Theron was still trying to process what was happening. HK-51 suddenly shoved his way past the two to do what had been ordered, but unfortunately R6 rushed in just as the only competent droid on the ship was making a turn into the ships corridor.  
The loud crash that ensued broke Harry's concentration allowing the volatile Cathar girl to rip free. She quickly extended her hand, causing Harry to brace himself for another wave of energy, but that never came.

"Get back!" He warned his companions.

Instead the top layer of his ever-present satchel spilled out. Death's cloak draped itself over an already reacting Vhonte, several books spilled out onto the floor around her feet, and a small cylindrical tube bumped off against the Mandalorian's armor before flying right back into her outstretched hand. The blue light exploded with a slapping hiss.

A rush of cold went through Harry and before he could possibly react, his left hand had already drawn his own laser sword. The beams crossed and in the back of Harry's mind he could hear a malice filled laugh echoing through his thoughts.

In a blink of an eye the Cathar girl had swung her blue blade, hoping to lob off one of his legs only to be intercepted by his furious carmine blade.

The girl's eyes went through a myriad of emotions. First, there was fear, then excitement, before settling on anger.

"Sith!" She snarled. Slipping from beneath his legs.

o0o0o0o0o

Darth Sidious or Sheev Palpatine as he was more commonly referred to by those ignorant of his true identity felt a great disturbance in the Force, unlike anything he had felt before but it reminded him of something his deceased master had once described to him. It made him freeze, not in fear nor excitement as it would a lesser Sith, but in annoyance.

It was like a void of Death had suddenly revealed itself. Darth Plagueis had once made mention of a Darth, Nihilus if he was not mistaken, that went by the title Lord of Hunger. His power nearly brought an end to the Force, but a foolish Jedi warrior whose name has been lost since the Reformation put a stop to his plans.

Sidious could not afford to have a rival of that caliber so close to enacting a plan that had taken thousands of years and generations of Sith Lords to bring into fruition. The dark lord had no doubt that this… void was nothing less than a Darth and if he wasn't he deserved it. To be Darth one had to be a living embodiment of death and supremacy, how could someone whose presence could be felt have remained hidden for so well that Sidious the strongest of the Sith didn't have an inkling of his existence before he revealed itself?

"Quite troubling." He muttered as he sat in his chair, overlooking Coruscant's skyline. The sun was already disappearing beneath the horizon, which gave the sky an orange glow and gave the great towers a coat of shadow. Sidious doubted Yoda had not felt the new presence and was scrambling to send one of his Jedi to investigate. He could only thank the Force that Anakin was busy sorting out some dull business on Orto Plutonia.  
He couldn't send Windu because the man was currently engaging droid forces on Dantooine. Fisto was still stationed on Kamino, Billaba was currently engaged against Grievous on the jungle planet Harrun Kal, Vos was still recovering from his engagement with Darth Tyranus, most of the other Masters were either off on assignment or posturing for the public to maintain an image of control of the situation, except for Master Shaak Ti who had recently returned from Kamino.

She would be the wise choice, her experience and knowledge would undoubtedly shed some light on his new Rival. She would die, of this he had little doubt, but her code drive to hunt the heresy that was his existence and drive into the light. But Sidious was not prepared to place the fate of the Galaxy in the hands of the Togrutan Jedi.

So, he called on his strongest pawn.

Count Dooku stood with his usually grim expression and bowed deeply. "What is thy bidding, my Master?" he intoned in his grave voice. Oh, how Tyranus hated him, but at least he saw the necessity of his evil. It brought a crooked smile to the Sith Lords face. Tyranus was a fool if he thought a weak act of reverence hid his seething hatred.

"I have need of your assassin." He said simply. There was no point in discussing the presence, if his apprentice had not felt it only proved how expendable he truly was. "Send her to Taris."

"As you wish, My Lord." With another deep bow the image faded and Sidious was left alone to contemplate his discovery.

o0o0o0o0o

Maras had lived a hard life, this was something she had come to accept as the will of the Force. She had spent the first six years of her life as a slave after watching her parents waste away, belonging to a very abusive pirate of the name Jax and had it not been for Master Fay she doubted she would have ever escaped. Training hadn't been any easier under Master Yoda and the rest of the Jedi, but she had endured fought her own nature and rose to the rank of Padawan. Then war broke out and her assigned Master had abandoned her in favor of living a hermit's life.

She had friends but like everyone in her life they eventually moved on. Barris was Padawan to Master Luminara Unduli, Zule Xiss was training under Master Glaive, and even Young Ahsoka was taken under Knight Skywalker's teachings. Maras was left alone in the Temple.

She was eventually paired up with Knight Han but on their first mission things had gone horribly wrong. In a blink of an eye Black Sun had executed Han and the clone contingent that had accompanied them to provide aid to a suffering village in the Outer Rim… what they did to her was beyond words but she would wear those scars proudly for the rest of her life.

Three months after Black Sun had captured her, they sold her to the Mandalorians who transported her to Taris for their sick hunt. She had evaded them for weeks but in the end they had cornered her in the under city. From there things were blank but she understood her current situation well enough to act.

She would not captured again, she would not become a slave again, she would not allow herself to be at anyone's mercy ever again!

Maras felt a kyber crystal call to her from the short man's bag.

It was then that she felt a sense of emptiness as she brought her lightsaber to bare but the truth was revealed as he drew his own. Its scorching red was screamed of the evil and death that it had brought so many others.

As a Padawan, no, as a Jedi she could not allow this evil to live.

Maras pushed herself from beneath him but his defense was impeccable. He did not move from his position, he stood like a rock against her onslaught. His eyes were half shrouded by the dark side but she saw no rage, no hatred, he was not like any Sith they taught about in the academy.

It wasn't long before her Cathar nature caused her to become agitated and unbalanced. Soon she allowed her rage to take control, unfortunately this made her unbalanced which gave the Mandalorian woman an ample window to strike her with the hilt of her guns.

Black spots plagued her vision and then, she was stuck by a bolt of the force."Expelliarmus!" Her lightsaber flew from her hand and she was tackled to the floor.

"What the hell!" She heard the Sith his as he threw his now inactive lightsaber to the ground.

"Statement: There is no need to feint shock, Master. Your skill was never in question, it is superior to many meatbags."

"The droids got a point." The Mandalorian said from her place beside the Sith. "I've never seen a Jedi twirl a saber like you do." There was hint of a smile in her tone.

"How about you stop your blabbering and help me restrain her!" The man above her shouted to the Sith, the droid, and the Mandalorian. She expected the Sith to retaliate at the man's insolence but instead the Sith walked over to them and grabbed her by the arm.

"Do you have a neural disruptor lying around? It'll help cow the Jedi long enough to get some answers out of her."

"Not to my knowledge." The Sith muttered as he hoisted her up. "HK get the table."

Mockery: HK get the chair, HK get the table, HK help us aid the meatbag who attempted to dismember your master." The droid complained as he did his task. "What's next? Feeding children, helping the elderly!" The table was rightened with a loud clank.

"Release me, Sith!" She thrashed in the two men's grips.

"Not a Sith." He responded without much thought. "Just a wizard."

"Do not lie to me!"

"I'm not."

"He really isn't." The Mandalorian added. "Can't catch a Sith with their pants down. I did that like what four times already?"

"Correction: Three times."

"Whose side are you on?"

"Statement: Yours, my Master."

"You will not deceive me, Sith!" Maras hissed as they placed her on the table. The older man pulled back a needle that she hadn't even felt enter her body and slowly she felt her anger dissipate.

"Gave her a mild seda-"

"You will not BREAK ME!" She exclaimed as her limbs began to fail her. To this the Sith sighed and palmed his forehead.

"The things I do for you,Sirius." He muttered before retrieving the ragged cloth that left bag with the lightsaber. "Vhonte keep an eye on our guest and please don't kill her."

"Sure thing, boss."

With that Maras world slowly descended into darkness and eventually she drifted in unconsciousness.

o0o0o0o0o

A/N: So, here it is Chapter Eight and the mysterious Cathar that Harry saved from Death Watch is finally awake. As always please review and be sure to check out my other works.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Wizard, A Sith, and the Huntress (Part I)

Asajj sat comfortably in the cockpit of her Ginivex-Class starfighter as she waited for the fleet to arrive. The dathomorian assassin sat with her eyes closed feeling through the Force for any disturbance that could lead her to fulfill her Master's wishes. Her target was supposed to be powerful and if she could best him she would truly be worthy of her position as Dooku's apprentice.

She loomed over Taris menacingly, searching for the slightest indication of a disturbance so powerful that her Master on Serenno and as far as she could tell there was none. It was as if whoever her target was knew stealth techniques that could rival those of her Sisters.

It would be worthy kill, at least, not on par as her slaying of the Immortal Jedi on Queyta or the decapitation of the brute Glaive on Ohma-D'un. She wondered if he was an exiled Jedi or if he was even a he… she imagined him to be a tall, imposing figure that was surrounded by the Force. He had to be threat or Dooku would not have sent her to this backwater nor would he send an occupying force to distract the Republic while she completed her mission. Once the invasion started it wouldn't be long before the Jedi sent a force of their own to liberate the planet and if she were lucky they would send Kenobi and all scores would be settled.

Sadly, she was not alone. The Bounty Hunter known only as Durge was sent after her query as well. The Gen'Dai was particularly exited to be hunting such illusive prey but Ventress doubted he was telling the whole truth. There were reports of Death Watch within the Vao sector.

The last of the Mandalorian Super Commandos would not survive Durge if he came upon them, Ventress rationalized. She knew of the tremendous rivalry between the Gen'Dai and the Mandalorians of Old, both were hunters but Durge was a monster without equal. Asajj had worked with Durge before and each time they worked together the body count associated to her grew exponentially.

 _"We are now entering the system."_ The mechanical voice of Wat Tambor rang through the overhead speaker. " _We will initiate our attack over the capital in the next hour. Be ready_." The communication cut and Asajj opened her cold grey eyes and smirked as a small ripple in the Force revealed itself near where Death Watch was reported.

This would be entertaining if nothing else.

o0o0o0o0o

In an old YT freighter, a ragtag group of charlatans were busy doing their own things.

Things were going well, which should have been enough of a warning for Harry to guard his nads 'cause the kick was undoubtedly coming, but he hadn't. Sure, the kneazle of a Jedi had tried to kill him but not much else had happened and he was content with how things were going for him. His growing crew were (with the exception of the Jedi) were content keeping themselves busy.

Vhonte kept a close watch over the Jedi; HK was keeping himself busy by improving the overworked engines; R6 was locked out of the cockpit; Theron was in the medbay with Fawkes keeping a tight inventory on a number of medicines that Harry in no way could pronounce; And Harry, well he… well he was stuck doing captainly duties… which while stuck on planet while his ship was being upgraded meant all he had to do was pay for it.

Oh, the joy.

Good news, the group hunting the Cathar Jedi hadn't returned to try to kill them all, much to HK and Vhonte's disappointment, and in a few days they were scheduled to leave the city planet and onto much greener places.

"Can you dance like a Hippogriff?!" Harry sang along to the song blasting from his computer. "Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma! Flyin' off from a cliff! Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, m-" Harry had to duck as what could only be described as an armored boot flew right at his face. It hit the far wall and landed next to his satchel.

"Ne'johaa!" Vhonte shouted from the door. Her rusty red hair was not in its usual braids and she wasn't wearing her usual armor, instead was dressed in the black lining that was more often than not under the plates. "Some of us are trying to sleep!"

"Sorry." Harry apologized and quickly moved to shut off his laptop. "I'm still not used to having people around." His mannerisms were purposefully sheepish but he didn't particularly feel sorry. When one was alone with only a magical bird as company one must become creative if they wanted to keep a relative level of sanity.

Take Sirius for example, he created some rather absurd stores about the time he spent in Azkaban. Like the one time he claimed to have pissed on a guards through the small slot on the iron door of his cell and the managed to trick the guard into believing that Bellatrix did it. Harry doubted the validity of the story but he wouldn't put it past Sirius to have tried.

"Don't do it again." She said as if she were scolding a child. With her arms crossed and looked past Harry and onto the computer in his bunk. "What is that?" There was genuine curiosity in her voice but that was simply an undercurrent suspicion that set off warning bells in Harry's head.

"A computer from my home planet." He replied, it wasn't a lie but it wasn't whole truth. The computer was so much more to him… it was one of the few links he had to his closest and dearest friend. Harry wasn't sure if Sirius would have either teased him or comforted him… but he surely hoped it was the latter. Vhonte did neither, instead choosing to look at him strangely before shrugging. The wizard knew that the woman in front of him didn't particularly care for him, which was fine, and was only using him to get to Death Watch… which was screwed up but it was still fine.

She would be useful if she stuck around. The galaxy was a dangerous place and when he found Sirius he'd need all the help he could get to clean up the colossal mess left in his wake… but he was sure that he was over thinking things.

The truth of the matter was that Harry was scared of something but he couldn't pinpoint what was causing him so much dread. It wasn't the 'lightsaber', as Vhonte had called it, he no longer felt the ghostly chill that lingered around the ancient metal cylinder… nor was it the violent Jedi Padawan currently confined to ship. It was almost as if magic was warning him that something was coming for the young Wizard.

As time passed the feeling grew in strength. It became so strong that eventually it pushed Harry into apparating onto the roof of hangar, but before that the aforementioned carmine lightsaber was summoned from the nightstand into his left hand.

Freezing winds blew right through the poorly coated wizard. Harry looked around the dark skyline and saw nothing out of the ordinary, no Death Watch huntress glaring at him from behind her scope, no dark wizard who was obsessed with his scar, and no Weequay Pirate selling faulty astro-mech… nothing that immediately called his attention… until he looked up and felt the largest ball of anger and hatred since he last faced Voldemort.

He could practically feel the mass of magic and emotion reaching out through space feeling for something… until it stopped right on him… well not exactly on him. The entity was focused directly beneath him… on the Cathar within his ship.

"Oh, no!" He hissed and apparated back into his room. He did not hesitate exiting the quarters, he did not pause to look around and in his haste he missed the grinning specter. The tattooed woman looked eager. Her chosen would face his first trial and with it she would know if he was worthy of her master's heart and his legacy.

Harry barreled through the circular corridor, barely dodging the rusted 'Protocol' Droid and jumping over a beeping R6.

"Query: What is the matter, master?" HK-51 asked but was ignored as the green eyed Wizard ducked into the ships cockpit. "Annoyed Statement: How rude."

"Wooo weep ooh."

"Correction: The Master is not rude. He simply cannot stand such inferior droids like yourself." R6 responded with a sorrowful wimper an a flicker in his lights

Fawkes flew immediately behind Harry and perched himself onto the young wizard's shoulder. Its sharp claws dug into his red shirt. The phoenix began singing in an effort to sooth his nerves.

Sadly, Fawkes attempt to help were just the sign that the Dark entity needed to launch its attack.

o0o0o0o0o

Ursa Wren woke to the sound of artillery raining down on the city world. The Mandalorian huntress lifted herself from her wall and peered through the nearby window to see a world on fire. Taris had known horror since the founding of the Galactic Republic. Wars were fought and won on the on its soil yet none were as violent as the burning Taris by Darth Malak. It had taken the planet centuries to recover from the sheer brutality of the Sith.

From where she was standing, Confederacy wanted to do the same. The planetary defenses were barely outfitted to drive off pirates they crumped like parchment against the combined might of the CIS. They were quick to take out the ion cannons before even entering atmosphere it wouldn't be long before they began to deployed their battle droids and the planet would be theirs.

Ursa pulled the long rifle from her back and aimed it towards the ship bay across the dark chasm that lead to the rakghoul plagued Undercity. Ships were scrambling in attempts to escape from the armada's onslaught, yet her prey ship was still docked… as if waiting for the opportune time to launch their escape.

Wren cursed under her breath as she looked towards the sky and spotted four Recusant-class Destroyers, one Subjugator-class Dreadnaught, a small fleet of buzzard droids. Her k _om'rk_ fighter wouldn't last two minutes against that swarm, but she took comfort that her prey nor her Guardians could survive against such an onslaught either. It was shame that there would be no honor for the dead… no honor for her brothers and sisters in Death Watch.

The Huntress shifted her rifle ever so slightly when she caught sight of a bronze colored ship weave through the swarm in such a fluid manner that Ursa knew that no droid could ever be programed with that much inhuman grace. She followed the trail of the ship until a Buzzard droid flew too close for comfort. Ursa ducked behind the nearby wall and waited for a few tense moments before retreating farther into abandoned building that she'd been using as a base.

Her yellow/orange armor was slightly too small for her so she couldn't move at her usual speed. It chafed against her skin but she ignored it in favor of getting to her ship. Ursa needed to contact her Mand'alor and inform him of her cadets failure… of her failure.

Ursa grimaced at the thought. She should have acted sooner, despite her weariness of the new force user, before her prey surrounded herself with an odd array of protectors. Mand'alor Vizsla would not be pleased to hear that Tervho had returned into play.

It was her duty and she could not shirk it.

She descended down to the base of the tower and sprinted to her grey tarp covered ship. Her k _om'rk starfighter_ was older then most as it had been in bloodline for nearly two generations. Every dent told a story of a successful hunt, every scorch mark a glorious victory. It had been her father's before he fell to the blade of Jango Fett.

She was ready to board the ship when a sound unlike any she had ever heard. It was somewhere between a roar and a hiss of flame. It was loud enough that the sound echoed through her helmet. She tried to access the ships longs range but jammers were stopping all kinds of communication.

The Huntress cursed under her breath and boarded her ship.

There would be no glory in a death to droids but her Mand'alor needed to hear what she had to say if they ever hoped to complete the hunt.

Ursa boarded her ship quickly and proceeded to blast her way out of the hangar with a volley of heavy cannon fire. When she broke out, she expected to see the swarm to attack her but instead a mass of melted metal being devoured by some kind of colossal flaming horned beast with hooves. With every ship that entered it grew exponentially larger until it engulfed every buzzard it consumed.

Out of the corner of her eye she spotted the bronze ship keeping its distance from the flaming behemoth. She paid it no mind as the beast disappeared into nothingness and the old YT freighter shout out through the smoke. Against her better judgment she began to follow. Ursa scanned the air waives for something that she could follow and found an old pirate homing signal was being emitted from within the ship.

The Huntress smirked as she committed the frequency to memory just before the ship and her prey disappeared into hyperspace. They were soon followed by the bronze ship. The CIS forces continued their attack on the plannet as Ursa broke through atmosphere… it wouldn't be long before the Republic responded to this vicious attack on a Neutral world.

The scene would drive her husband to tears, he was an artist, attuned to the Satine's culture of passivism… he would weep for the fallen and blaming it on those who used power to rul over the weak. Ursa looked onto the slaughter and saw the need to arm her people against invaders that would rule them.

Pre Vizsla would agree.

o0o0o0o0o

A/N: Here's chapter nine. I'm sorry for the long wait but this chapter kept fighting me and i've rewriten it half a dozen times.

The fiend fire beast that Ursa saw was a stag.

To clear something up; Kyber crystals are alive. Not exactly sentient but they have a way of communicating with people across the is why the crew's most volatile member was able to sense it from within Harry's satchel.


	10. Chapter 10

SO Chapter 10: Jedi Crash and Sith Clash (Part One)

While the Separatists invaded Taris another siege was taking place in the far off Quell system. The three hundred twenty seventh Star Corps was being annihilated by the combined forces of two CIS fleets that had dropped out of hyperspace just as Jedi Knight, Aayla Secura, managed to repel a minor invasion force off the Planet Quell's surface. For the past three days, the Jedi and her Clones were systematically disabled. She had lost two Venetor-Class Star Destroyers along with the entirety of their crews and was in the process of loosing three more.

To Aayla, it was clear that while the Republic's ships were far superior to those of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, they were simply no match for the sheer numbers of cannons that they point at their ships. The Jedi had been caught in a game of Lothal Cats and Corilian mice. But worst of all was that she could not expect the Council to send reinforcements because the separatists had blocked all communications. As such she couldn't be certain that the distress call would made it through but by the Force would continue to fight until she had exhausted every resource the three hundred twenty seventh Star Corps had to offer.

As such they would not reach the end of another day without suffering catastrophic losses. In the next three days Aayla and her clones would either be slaughtered or driven off Quell. The flash of turbocannons suddenly illuminated the cerulean sky pulled the Jedi knight from her musings. The explosions that followed shook her ship so badly that she suspected that her calculations were incorrect…

They would not survive the day.

"General!" The Admiral Calos shouted over from the command console on the far side of the bridge. "Our shields are down to Thirty-five percent capacity!"

"Force preserve us!" She hissed as the ship rocked and sirens blared. "How long until we are ready to return fire?"

"Portside turbocanons are down!" A shouted from somewhere behind her. "Remaining cannons are at forty percent capacity, General."

"Frak." Aayla cursed under her breath but none of the clones noticed her falter. "Captain! Signal the _Resolute_ and the _Goliath_ we are pulling back!" The Jedi Knight closed her eyes and reached out to the force in an effort to calm her emotions

The clones scrambled to follow their General's orders, but Bly stood stark still next to the Jedi, dutifully awaiting her orders. The Clone Commander had only seen Aayla act this way once and back then she had a much larger clone Army at her disposal. General Grievous had left scars on the Jedi, there was no doubt, some even beneath the skin where no one aside from the most observant could see. The Battle of Hypori had been a crushing defeat, where seventy six percent of his brothers were wiped out.

This would be the second command under General Secura that would be lost if the Jedi didn't pull off some kind of miracle. Bly would do his best to make sure the General escaped the carnage. The Republic needed the Jedi more than they needed an aging ARC Trooper.

Another series of explosions rocked the ship.

"Engines are down! Now entering a controlled decent towards the planets surface!"

"Shields are at ten percent and failing!"

"General." The admiral shouted, his voice holding more cheer than Aayla felt possible in such a dire situation. "Six Republic cruisers have just exited hyperspace and are approaching our position!"

A spark of hope managed to flittered within Rutian Twi'lek. Reaching out to the force she felt three familiar Force signatures. Master Kenobi was the farthest, he was on the bridge of the _Dauntless;_ Skywalker and his Padawan were moving rapidly towards her. Most likely on one of the dozens of LAAT gunships descending from

"Shields are down!"

o0o0o0o

"Then stop lingering by the door and bloody fix them!" Harry shouted over his shoulder as HK continued to list down the failing systems of his decrepit YT. There was a small, bronze cylindrical star fighter chasing them through hyperspace. Every once in a while the ship would shake because of a stray blaster bolt hit the stern. Hull integrity was the only thing holding and that was mainly due to the fact that he could still feel the Darkness at the edges of his mind. He could predict her just as well as she could predict him.

" Annoyed Statement: I am an assassins droid not a mechanic. That would be quite ineffective while in Hyperspace, Master. An advanced enough astromech could run the necessary repairs but your inferior droid is not suited for such a task." His eyes flashed wildly for a second. "Query: Where exactly are we going, Master?"

"No idea." He said before clicking the button that allowed him to communicate with the ship. "Theron bring the girl to the cockpit." His voice echoed through the corridors. "Vhonte get on the turret and shoot back"

"HK make yourself useful…" He growled as he was forced to correct the heading. "…liquefy the witch."

"Joyful Declaration: Why certainly, Master." The droid said cheerfully. "It would be my absolute pleasure to eliminate the persistent meatbag."

Harry didn't acknowledge the droid as it marched away. Piloting through Hyperspace was dangerous, piloting while being attacked by a fighter? That was considered near impossible. Maz had warned him of the many dangers of the useful transportation tools including Purrgils and Starweirds. Now, the probability of running into either one of these creatures was minimal but Maz thought it prudent to at least inform him of them. One of the dangers of hyperspace travel was drifting far enough off course to collide with a star or a planet.

This wasn't particularly a problem for Harry. He was natural flyer and was fairly confident in his skills as a pilot to avoid this kind of death The problem was the unknown black magic user who seemed intent on shooting down his ship Now, Harry wasn't particularly knowledgeable about the political landscape of the Galaxy but he was fairly certain that if the Jedi was being hunted by this magic user, he could guess that said magic users was one of these so called Sith.

"I brought Maras." Theron said as he escorted the padawan into the cockpit. He wore his a rugged grey military uniform. His jacket showed a rank that Harry wasn't particularly familiar with. The older man looked far more haggard than usual, there were line beneath his eyes and light sheen of sweat The Jabiim Medic was suffering from nightmares, something that Harry understood well enough. The war had wrecked him for a while but he eventually managed to get it under control… but he was young and Theron was in his forties. "What do you need me to do?"

"Prep the med bay." He responded. The ship lurched slightly as a stray shot grazed the hull. "We'll be needing it soon enough " Half of his attention turned to the girl that looked at Harry with as much loathing as Ron had once looked as Snape. "Take a seat and tell me about the Sith."

A freezing burst of cold shocked him enough that his hand pulled the lever that controlled the Hyperdrive. In the next few seconds, Harry avoided direct collision with a ship near an angry orange star.

o0o0o0o0o

They were surrounded by rocket droids. The rest of the battalion had been wipped out fighting their way to Skywalker's downed LAAT, only Bly remained and the ARC trooper was no worse for wear. In the distance the sound Aayla could hear the familiar hiss of a lightsaber cutting metal, the Jedi couldn't help but smirk as the brown haired fellow Jedi Guardian mad his way through the Super Battle Droids. Skywalker was a force of nature with a lightsaber. His strikes were powerful, quick, and precise.

"Nice entrance, Skywalker." She complemented with a hopeful grin. With a small twitch of her wrist she deflected a stray bolt heading straight for the commanders face. "How do you plan to get us out of this mess?"

"Well, I have a ship docking in the lower hanger as we speak." He sounded confident something that Aayla needed right now. "We need to move!"

" _Activate docking port."_ The radio crackled and the voice of Clone echoed through.

" _On it."_ Another said _. "Docking port activation complete. Estimated time before impact… ten minutes, General"_

The Jedi and their clone escort weaved through the Hallways, never stopping as they tore their way to the escape ship. A sense of hope flooded through the Twi'lek Knight but as she was about to voice it the ship's shaking grew exponentially.

"They're focusing fire on our ship!" She announced with all the calm she could muster after a lifetime of training. The clones and her fellow Jedi took this as a sign that they needed to quicken their pace.

"We made it." Padawan Ahsoka said in relief,

"Gangway locked in, sir." The pilot chimed in as he opened the heavy blast doors. The Destroyer lurched and a roar nearly split Aayla's eardrums. There was an explosion quickly approaching… one that could take the escape craft apart…

"It's too late." Skywalker felt it too but instead of resigning to his fat he pushed Aayla, Ahsoka and the clones to safe with a strong and sudden push of the Force. Bly grabbed the padawan and took most of the impact while Aayla landed gracefully next to a toppled Commander Rex. The Blast doors closed just as the explosion came into view.

"Master!" Ahsoka cried out as the force of the explosion dented the dark metal. "Don't move the ship." It was an order that that the clones would follow out of Loyalty to the Republic but one that would get them killed as the timer drew closer to zero.

" _Are you guys all right down there?"_ The pilot's voice cried out but no one answered him. Reaching through out with the Force Ahsoka pushed the blast doors open, just enough so she could peek her head I an see the what undoubtedly would be the corpse of her beloved Master.

"Ahsoka, we have to leave now." Aayla said in an attempt to spare her the pain.

"He's alive!" the Padawan cried out as she pushed the doors farther apart. "Hurry. Get him on the ship." The clones commanders complied each hoisting the Jedi Guardian by the arm an into the safety of the ship. Once secured Bly excused himself and ex made to accompany him. Which left Aayla Secura and Ahsoka Tano to carefully take Anakin to the ships med bay.

" _Gangway release_ ". They heard as the layed Anakin down for the Med Droid to tend to. Aayla left for the bridge the moment she was certain that Skywalker would be looked after.

When she arrived, the pilot had already started docking procedure and the clones w "You'll never be able to dock in the middle of this battle." Admiral Wulf Yularen informed the clones. But Aayla would have none of it, not when lives were at stake.

"We have no choice, admiral." She informed him in the same tone he had talked to the clones. "General Skywalker's condition may be critical. We must get him on board the _Resolute_.

The Admiral let out a defeated sigh but straightened, giving the jedi a sad look. "Are all Jedi so reckless?"

"Just the good ones." She said with mask to hide her uncertainty.

The short distance between Aatla's Venator- Class Star Destroyer and Anakin's was eternal as they zoomed past the battlefield. V-19s and Buzzard droids clashed all around them, a myriad of explosions and detonations obscured their view of the sky around them. The Force warned the Jedi that danger approached but by the time she saw what it was a swam of droids was already upon them. The reflector shield held but a surge of energy shot out from the console, killing the pilots and starting up the Hyperdrive.

"The hyperdrive's been activated." Rex warned while Bly moved the bodies. They could hear the engine powering up but as desperately as they pressed buttons and switches the sound only grew louder.

"Shut it down." She ordered hoping that some of the programming would kick in and they would manage to follow it before they destroyed both ships. "I can't." Bly barked back frustrated.

"General Secura, what's going on?""The Admiral asked with worry lacing his voice.

"We're going into hyperspace" The Jedi responded, already moving to detach the docking clamps.

"Detach! Detach!" Was his order and thanks to the will of the Force she managed to do just that. "They'll take us with them."

Bly hit the thrusters just in time to create enough distance between them and the _Resolute._ The cruiser immediately shot into hyperspace to an unknown heading.

Now, Aayla was a fairly decent pilot but she wasn't skillful enough to get them out of the situation they found themselves in. She specialized, like her master, in combat, tracking, and infiltration, but Anakin and his student were considered some of the better pilots in the war effort. Lifting her communicator closer to her mouth she called out to Ahsoka. "I need you on the bridge with commander Bly, right now."

"I should stay in the Medbay." The Padawan protested. If it had been her old Master, Aayla knew that she would have hesitated but she would not have defied those with more experience as the young Padawan did. "Commander Bly doesn't need my help. Anakin does."

"You can help Anakin by getting this ship to safety." The knight said soothingly but in atone that brokered no room for argument. Aayla stayed on the com until she heard a muttered 'fine' and then turned to Anakin's second in command who was waiting in an uncharacteristic silence. "Yes?"

"General Secura, we have a problem."

"What is it, commander?"

"In our haste to escape, the navicomputer's coordinates were inputted incorrectly." Of course it was. When things went wrong for Jedi it could never be something simple or non life threatening, no, it always needed to be horrible. "And, we're headed right for a star."

Frack.

Ahsoke entered the bridge and was informed of their current predicament. To her credit the padawan did not allow her fear to show bur Aayla could sense it through her connection to the Force. The first thing Ahsoka did after taking Bly's place was attempt to access the navcomputer.

"It's no use. The navigation computer is completely fried." The Torguta hissed slamming a fist on the machine in he frustration.

Aayla the memory of being locked out of a terminal Temple library… and the words of Jacosta Nu whenever this happened to her or her fellow Jedi. "Shut down all power circuits to reset the coordinates."

"That will cut off Anakin's life support." The Padawan once more protested her orders.

"I don't like it either, but it's a risk we're going to have to take." Hazel eyes locked onto the Torgutan's hesitant blue. The The padawan was the first to look away and the quickest to follow orders.

"We're switching off primary power units." Ahsoka finally said in a resigned voice

"Cutting it awfully close." Bly spoke up not lifting his head from the scanners,

"Ready to shut off auxiliary power…" Rex chimed in standing at the ready. "On three."

"One,"

"two,"

"three!"

The ship decelerated far enough away from the orange star that Aayla could sigh in relief. There was still a chance they could escape the ships gravity well before the laws of normal space took hols

"We're out of hyperspace!" The padawan cheered.

"Resume all power." But before the clone could comply inertia too effect and both he and the Jedi Knight were sent barreling towards the far wall.

"Switch the power back on!" Bly shouted from his chair "What are you waiting for? Hurry. Hurry."

Though the Force, Aayla reached out and struggled to grip the switch the Rex had been holding moments ago. Her focus was shot when her head a smashed into the wall but she manage to flip it just as an old freighter narrowly winged them.

"We're not going to crash into the star"Ahsoka cried out attempting to regain control of the rapidly descending ship. "but we're going to hit that planet!"

As the ship entered the atmosphere of Maridune, Aayla swore she felt a hole in the Force coming from within the also crashing freighter. It had sentient emotion but it warped the Force aroud itself like a cloak that the Knight could not break through. She became absorbed with this anomaly that she did not feel the presence of the dark side that lingered around the bubble nor the one following them coming from an intact starfighter that lingered just out of view.

o0o0o0o0o

Vhonte never regretted any actions she took against Death Watch. They had killed most of her comrades though prxy and forced those that remained to become mercenaries…. That being said was having second thoughts about activating the damaged pirate beacon near the back of the ship. When the warrior had activated it she had never imagined that the Separatists would use it to follow a random ship with such persistence. She had assumed that Wren would call her brother and sisters in arms to follow the signal but the bitch piloting the Ginivex was in a league of their own. Neither her excellent marksman skills nor the droids programed precision had managed to strike the ship once. Once in atmosphere the pilot had broken the chase going as far as to be just outside of visual range.

"Vhonte I need you on the bridge." Harry's voice came from the intercom.

"I'll be down in a minute." With a quick scan of her surroundings the Mandalorian disengaged the turret and began her climb down the ladder. She took a left toward the bridge and to her surprise. Harry was no longer wearing the clothes he had on when she lobbed a boot at him. He was dressed in red Mandlorian armor but his face was still exposed. He reminded her of the stories her buir used to tell her about Revan, the Jedi who took Mandalor the Ultimate's mask, but that was of course before the version of the man she knew shown through.

His 'Phoenix' as he called it was perched on his shoulder and the Cathar Jedi fledgling sat across from him unbound but looking at the man in a mixture of awe and fear. "We're going to draw attention away from the ship." Harry informed her as he put the helmet on. "Maras, Fawkes, and I will descend to the planet surface while you, Theron, HK, and the dustbin fly to the nearest settlement and fix whatever damage we took in the collision." "So, we're landing to drop you off or are you using the escape pod?" was it stupid idea to allow her employer to go off on his own with a hormonal, homicide prone, Padawan? Yes, but who was she to argue with her employer.

"Neither." Harry said in away that one could tell he was smiling like an idiot. His hand grabbed onto Maras and both disappeared in a plume of smoke. Leaving a shocked Vhonte to scramble to the controls before the ship took a nose dive.

Had she not seen her fare share of oddities out in space she would have frozen but teleportation via fire wasn't the strangest thing she ad seen in her life and she doubted it would be the most peculiar thing she saw in Harry's service.

On the surface of the planet Harry and Maras appeared in an explosion of light. The two looked at each other for a moment before heading towards the crashed ship. Would follow the plume of smoke in an effort to save whoever was left alive. Maras looked at the suspected Sith questioningly. The Order had taught her that the Sith were not creatures of compassion but all she could sense from the masked man was an overwhelming need to save. She would have suspected that this was just a ploy to throw her off her game but as she palmed the lightsaber he had given her she began to have her doubts. Still she was cautious. The man had switched his clothes with a stick and still carried the carmine weapon of the Sith on his waist. Maras had heard stories of Sith sorcery, she could not allow herself to be fooled by this man.

So, the duo walked in silence towards the smoke on the horizon… both aware that in the distance a malevolent entity had abandoned its ship to hunt them down.

o0o0o0o0o

A/N: Sorry for the long wait but what can i do? Here's chapter ten and i really hope you enjoyed this chapter cause it was actually enjoyable to write.

Next chapter: Asajj Strikes.

Please review. i do enjoy reading them.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Jedi Crash and Sith Clash (Part Two)

Aayla Secura felt like death.

The Twi'lek had come close to death on many occasions during her years as a Jedi. She had come closest to death in her days as a Padawan when her Uncle, Pol Secura, wiped her away her memories in an effort to sell her as a slave. Her former teacher and friend, Quinlan Vos, slew the wretched man but in her state of amnesia Aayla did not recognize the kindness of the act. She fell to the Dark Side and into the hands of an ancient fallen Anzat Jedi, Volfe Karkko.

Volfe corrupted, fed from her, and used her as a weapon against Vos. Thankfully she was soon freed from the Dark Jedi's control but the she was left with a broken body and a shattered mind. At that point she would have considered death to be mercy. It took months for Aayla to recuperate physically, years to trust herself and ascend to the rank of Knight.

In moments of insecurity she could feel Volfe's fingers along her lekku.

As she stared at the twisted metal remains of her ship Aayla had to fight down a mounting feeling of dread. She had woken outside being ragged from the ship by a heavily wounded Bly and a battered Commander Rex. The other clones had taken to extracting Skywalker from the med-bay.

Ahsoka was missing with half the cockpit, which was rather problematic. They were wounded, on a possibly hostile world, and now one of their number was lost, perhaps even dead. Aayla could sense a powerful presence on the horizon, possibly two. The powerful one was like a vortex of rage and bile it was rather distracting; the other drifted in and out of focus, but one thing was for sure, it was heading in their direction.

There was too much magnetic interference for a bio scan and Aayla could not risk turning her attention away from the obvious threat to search for the missing Padawan.

Soon enough Skywalker was dragged from the wreckage, bleeding more profusely than he had when they had escaped her ship, and the bruises were more profound. He was in no condition to stand, let alone fight. This put them at greater disadvantage than when they had been surrounded by an army of droids on a burning ship. Now a single Jedi would and half a dozen clones would have to both protect the wounded General and seek aid in a possible barren world.

"General Secura," Commander Rex approached her with a small wooden artifact. "We've found a tablet." Aayla took the rectangular object, studying the rough engravings. The art of the tablet looked like the giant trees she had seen on the way down. From what she had seen in a brief glimpse the gargantuan trees grew close together, like patches of green in a sea of tall grass. "We're not the only ones here on this planet. There might be people that can help General Skywalker." "If you don't mind me asking, general," Bly cut into the argument before she could speak up. "Where exactly are we going to find these people who live on this planet? We have no idea where they are." Bly, like most of his batch of clones, was a cynic, which was why they had placed him with Aayla. She as an Empath would on rare occasion fall prey to her compassion; Bly was a grounding force, a violent, strategic, gun toting, grounding force. "Our best chance at finding them is to the south." Aayla stated while pointing in the direction she had seen the trees. "Skywalker cannot be moved. Our forces will have to be divided if we wish to achieve our objective. Bly and Rex, you will take the clones and find the inhabitants while I will stay here and protect the injured." Bly nodded his head slowly and turned to rally the troopers but Rex lingered. His black visor stared her down for a minute. She could sense the hesitation and the inner turmoil that plagued him. Clones were designed to follow the order of their superiors but they were sentient and they had their won thoughts. "What about the kid?" Like she had said, Padawan Tano's disappearance put her in a moral impasse. She had a duty as a Jedi and a former Padawan herself to Search for Ahsoka, but also had a duty to those under her command. If she abandoned one to do the other, she would open herself to a compromise that left her with no easy choice… When face with a similar conundrum her former Master imparted some wise words: ' _I need a drink.'_ But that would be inappropriate in their current situation. So all she could do was make a vow that would satisfy both. "If she is alive…" Aayla stares at the black t-shaped visor with unwavering determination. "Then she will be found." Her words felt hollow… but there was little else she could do. They were what they were. Rex lingered, Aayla could feel his gaze lock onto her amber eyes but eventually he turned and rallied to join his brothers. By the time they set out, their white armor glowed as the sun sank in the distance… there would be no sleep tonight.

o0o0o0o0o

Miles to the east, beyond what the naked eye could see, Ahsoka Tano lay pinned to the floor of a cramped piece of metal. Her Master once said: ' _Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing, Ahsoka.'_ As pain bloomed from her chest the Togutan Padawan had her doubts at what her Anakin Skywalker passed off as ' _words of wisdom'_. Ahsoka Tano was on her back pinned to the floor by some heavy panel that had dislodged from the exterior of the ship and somehow found itself inside the ships cockpit. Her head was too fuzzy from the impact to use the Force to free herself and the clones and Master Secura were nowhere in sight.

"He-lp…" Ahsoka managed to gasp out between breaths. She waited for what felt like an eternity but the only answer she received was the groaning of collapsing metal. She didn't know how long she waited alone in the darkness… but as time slowly passed, the pain grew her hope for rescue dwindled and the thought of failure became agony.

Had she caused the death of her Master, Knight Secura, and the Clones that followed them? She was scared that they were dead because of her. They had trusted to land the ship and now they were all gone! Aayla had proven herself to the Jedi Order time and time again. Why had they made her pilot the ship?! Fear made her more aware of the pain she was feeling, it amplified her desperation, and made every second feel like it was crawling ever slower.

In time fear bubbled into anger and from there things started to spiral.

For years the Jedi had taught her to distance herself from emotion, it was according to these teaching that they had flourished into the Republic's peacekeepers, but in her solitude only emotion kept her conscious. Her anger was turned inwards, towards her inability to save those she wished to protect and the Jedi who had overestimated Ahsoka's skill.

"Hel-p."

Anger turned into hatred.

Hatred of herself, of the war that had cost her so many friends, of the ungrateful people who knew not of the sacrifice that the Jedi made, and of the situation she found herself in. She never wanted to be a soldier, that wasn't the Jedi way where were the keepers of peace when _She_ needed them. Trillions of people in the Republic had never seen a Jedi, billions hadn't even heard of the Ancient Order that had stood alongside the Republic since its inception. Symbols of hope meant nothing to those that were ignorant of their meaning

This dark, corrupting emotion urged her to struggle despite her the state of her physical being and the imbalance that that was growing within her. She trashed, as much as she could while trapped, pushing and writhing in vain attempts to free herself. The result of her attempt at escape managed to dislodge the ships communication system from the thin wiring that had once kept it suspended. It fell atop of her, knocking the wind out of her a lungs, and deepening her mounting despair

She gasped, trying to draw in as much air as she could.

The pain spread throughout her body as black spots marred her vision. Her body wanted her to scream but the lack of air prevented her from doing so.

Hatred had turned into suffering.

She sobbed like she hadn't since she heard news of Jabiim and the death of what the Republic called the Padawan Pack. She had lost friends and a sister to that campaign. Zule Xiss had looked out for her since Master Plo brought her to the temple. She was the one who taught her about all the amazing things Jedi could do… until she ran into Ventress and lost an arm and her Master.

She became cold and violent after that. She died crushed by an AT-AT in the mud… just like Ahsoka would die crushed by debris. The others had followed her. The five hundred and first told her the horror stories of what they had encountered on that planet haunted her nightmares for her first few deployments but she had never been in a position of hopelessness quite like that,

Until now.

It was strange how in moments of despair the world seemed so much clearer than it had ever been for the Torgutan Jedi. Mantra that had given her so much stability in her life became meaningless as one startling truth showed its ugly head.

She did not want to die.

Not alone…

Not without knowing if her Master was still alive…

And definitely before she could stop this stupid war…

In her agony she did not notice a red armored figure looming over her with a strange bird sitting on his shoulder, ate least not until the bird began to sing. The song was sad but that was what caught her attention but the overwhelming presence of the living Force that was carried by the melancholic song.

" _Wigardium Leviosa!_ " The armored individual intoned with a flick of his wrist and almost instantly the debris trapping Ahsoka rose into the air. With another flick the metal was flung clear across the room. "What do you think, Fawkes? Can she be moved?"

The bird, Fawkes, bobbed its head once. It trilled and tears big, pearly tears fell from its eyes and onto her face. The pain stopped as soon as the liquid touched her skin but the next thing she knew, her world was engulfed in fire that did not burn. A second later she was no longer staring at a metal ceiling but under unfamiliar stars.

Fawkes jubilant song was cut short when something caused it and its Master to turn away. A gust of wind made his robes to billow, and Ahsoka caught sight of the cylindrical lightsabre that all Jedi carried.

"Maras, can you be a dear and look after our new friend here?" A new figure came into line of sight this time a Cathar dressed in modified Clone Trooper armor, drawing her own lightsabre. It activated with a comforting hiss and shined a cerulean blue. Maras' body fell into the basic defensive third form of lightsabre combat, Soresu as the armored Jedi drew his own longer weapon.

He gripped it with his left hand before pushing his feet apart and entering a similar form. She shifted her body to look at the threat that they were responding to and hissed in anger. Asajj Ventress stood a handful of meters away with her own dual scarlet lightsabres drawn.

"A Mandalorian aiding Jedi." Came the mocking greeting of the Dark Jedi that had cut of Zule's arm. "What would your people think of you?"

The Armored Jedi activated his lightsabre and Ahsoka gasped in shock. Carmine blades glowed angrily illuminating the dark savanna in their sinister glow. "Nor my people." He clarified in a tight tone. "Just something I picked up on my travels."

"Interesting, why would a disciple of the Dark protect those that would see you dead?"

"Well… unlike you, they haven't shot at my ship." His response was lighthearted, much like what her master would use to throw his enemies off balance but his body was tense. "Nor have they attacked a planet I was on."

So you would ally with these weaklings just because hey have personally done you no wrong?" She hissed in disbelief." What kind of Sith are you? Your existence is an insult to us All!"

"This again? I'm not a Sith, I'm not a Jedi, I'm just Harry."

"You will die!" Ventress launched herself towards Harry with a twirl. The distance was cut faster than Ahsoka could role away, but before the blades could make contact they were stopped by his carmine lightsabre. The screeching noise that emanated from the crossed blades were unlike anything she had ever heard.

"I know." He said shrugging. "But it won't be today and certainly it won't be by your hand."

Maras growled but remained steadfast. "Get up." She ordered without looking back. "We need to be ready to…" She was interrupted by the violent push that was closely followed by a scream of pain coming from Ventress as Harry intercepted it before it could do any serious damage. Static filled the air as black clouds formed out of clear sky. Rain fell like a wave and lightning soon followed and while al this was happening Harry remained unmoved "Run!"

Ventress moved in a blur of motion her strikes were quick and powerful but none of theme could penetrate Harry's defense. The young Torgutan could feel the Force roll of Harry, much like it did Fawkes, and how the world seemed to respond to it. She had questions that she would need answers for but those could wait till later. Ahsoka stared a the spectacle of skill and rage for a second before she followed Maras' lead and began to spring away before she could be swept up in the conflict.

As the duo sank into the tall grass Ahsoka could see the strange bird watching them from above.

o0o0o0o0o0o

A/N: Looking for a Beta reader for this story. PM if you're up for the task.

Next update: Once Upon a Time in Gotham.


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